MANILA, Philippines - A decision by the Olympic Council of Asia to remove bowling from the Incheon, Korea Asian Games in 2014 is still subject to appeal but, if that’s the case, the singles gold will be the first and last for Filipino Biboy Rivera.
Bowling officials said the decision will disturb the national bowling program which will now focus on the Asian Championships and the World Cup.
The SEA Games calendar is likely to exclude the sport from the calendar in line with the OCA directive.
The OCA wants the inclusion of all 28 Olympic events and allow only seven non-Olympic disciplines starting with the 2014 Asiad.
However, although the national bowling team will not make an appeal, it is most likely Korea will, since it is the overall champion in the Guangzhou Games.
Korea led the medal tally with 8-5-2 gold-silver-bronze medals with Malaysia second with 2-1-1 and the Philippines third with 1-0-1. The bronze was won by Frederick Ong also in the singles.
Korea has dominated the women’s events, winning 12 of the 33 gold medals awarded and 26 of 99 overall in the Asian Games.
Korea’s Hwang Sun Ok is the first bowler to win all three bowling titles in the Asian Games – singles, all events and Masters.
Hwang’s five gold-medal haul is a record in the Asian Games. Korea also owns the record for most number of women’s golds (5) and most number of golds in the bowling competitions (8).
Korean Choi Bok Eum also scored a perfect 300 in the Masters. Korea shot a new record of 770 in the men’s trios, 801 in the men’s team-of-five, and 2,687 in the women’s doubles from Choi Jin and Gang Hye Eun.