World bowl triumph boosts Rivera to No. 7

Biboy Rivera, riding on his resounding victory in the Masters finals in the recent World Men’s Championships in South Korea, jumped from No. 17 to No. 7 in the Asian Ranking, boosting his bid for a stint in next year’s staging of the World Ranking Masters.

With 377 ranking points, the 32-year-old Rivera bounced back into contention in the race for the top 8 berths in the 2007 World Ranking Masters.

Rivera, who rolled a perfect game in the fifth and deciding match to beat Germany’s Achim Grabowski and win the masters crown in the world tilt, stood just four points behind sixth running Ryan Lalisang of Indonesia (381) and 17 points behind No. 5 Australian Jason Belmonte.

Remy Ong of Singapore, who earned 380 points after winning two gold medals in the singles and all events and a quarterfinal stint in the Masters in the last Korea meet, surged ahead of the field with 488 points.

Malaysia’s Alex Liew, who took the silver medal after losing to Hong Kong’s Wu Siu Hong in the Asian Championship Masters finals, retained second spot with 428 after only managing to earn 20 points. Wu dropped to fourth with 413 after failing to score a single point at the same championship.

Azidi Ameran of Malaysia took third place with 422 ranking points.

The World Ranking Masters 2007 brings together the top 8 male and top 8 women ranking leaders from the American, Asian, and European zones competing for the ultimate title of world ranked No. 1.

There are four more Asian Ranking championships left this year for the bowlers to earn more points for next year’s World Ranking Masters 2007. These are the ongoing Hong Kong International Open, the eighth Chinese Taipei International Open slated Sept. 17-27, the fifth Guam International Open set Nov. 13-26, and all-important Doha Asian Games Dec. 1-15.

Filipina Liza Clutario is likewise in seventh place in the distaff side with the ABF Tour Indonesia leg champion assembling 200 points.