HONG KONG – Veteran Chester King exploded with a three-game series of 847 pins to power the Philippines to the men’s trios gold medal with 4193 in the 20th Asian tenpin bowling championships here Tuesday night.
King shot lines of 279, 289 and 279 for a sizzling average of 276.67 pins per game and got big support from Raoul Miranda and Frederick Ong, who posted 713 and 637 three-game totals, respectively, as the Filipinos captured their first gold in the prestigious tournament.
King, who set an Asian championship record of 813 (three-game series) on short oil Tuesday morning in the team-of-five event, is poised to bag an individual gold medal in the all-events with a 21-game total of 4886 pins (232.67 average) with only three games left.
Miranda, another Filipino standout, trails King by 127 pins with 4759 (226.62 average), while erstwhile leader Mubarak Al-Muraikhi of Qatar slipped to third with 4711 (224.33).
The second block of the team event that will determine the all-events champion and the top 16 bowlers who will advance to the Masters competition was being played at presstime yesterday.
“It’s a big day for our bowlers, particularly Chester (King) who worked hard to get back into his old form after a rough sailing in the last Philippine Open,” said PBC president Steve Hontiveros.
The Filipinos finished 276 pins ahead of Malaysia’s Adrian Ang, Aaron Kong and Mohd Nur Aiman (3917) and 295 away from bronze medalist Singapore (3898).
Another RP team composed of Tyrone Ongpauco, Benshir Layoso and Vlad Tuazon checked in 14th with 3788. Ongpauco was the best performer with a six-game series of 1340 on lines of 236, 229, 193, 246, 216 and 180.
The RP squad of King, Miranda, Ong, Ongpauco and Tuazon is running fifth in the team-of-five event with 3291.
Malaysia leads with 3427, followed by Qatar (3397) and Hong Kong and United Arab Emirates, tied for third and fourth at 3337.
On the distaff side, the RP team of Krizziah Lyn Tabora, Liza del Rosario and Marie Alexis Sy wound up 12th with 3541, while the group of Dyan Coronacion, Kimberly Lao and Elaine Ongpauco came in 15th with 3343.
The Koreans swept the gold, silver and bronze medals in the ladies’ trios competition.
Tabora appears to be the only RP bet with a chance to make it to the Masters event with 4374 pins, good for a 16th place tie with Malaysian Zandra Aziela in all-events.
Liza del Rosario, once Asia’s dominant female pintoppler, is way down at 32nd spot at 4190, while Coronacion is further back at 39th with 4061.