Asian Bowling Tour fires off today at Pearl Plaza

The CGU Asian Bowling Tour begins today at Pearl Plaza’s Pearl Bowling Center in Baclaran with the country’s top keglers vying not only for top honors against the finest players in the region but also for berths in the SEA Games-bound Philippine team.

Bonnie Solis, the assistant coach of the RP team, said the event, despite its knockout format, will serve as part of their selection process for the 12-man national squad that will compete in the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games this September.

"We have been conducting the elims since January and we will come up with the final composition of the team after this event," said Solis, who is at the helm of the team’s preparations for this ABT event and the SEAG along with head coach Johnson Cheng and foreign mentor Purvis Granger.

Fancied to make the team are Chester King, CJ Suarez and Biboy Rivera (men’s) and Cecilia Yap, Liza del Rosario and Jojo Canare (women’s) while the remaining slots are being contested by Carlo Mansilungan, Benny Dytoc, Botchok Rey, Arnold Lecaros, Richie Poblete, Irene Benitez, Arianne Cerdeña, Liza Clutario and Leah del Rosario.

King and Yap are also expected to lead the country’s bid in this $25,000 event of the ABT, to be telecast by ESPN Star Sports. The two-day tournament also serves as some kind of a preview of the SEA Games with Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia also seeing action in the tournament, the second leg of the eight-stage series.

ESPN Star Sports will telecast the event on June 30 at 4 p.m. with the quarterfinal round with a replay on July 4. The semis and finals will be shown on July 1, also at 4 p.m. and will be replayed on July 7. Highlights of the event will be telecast on July 10 at 5 p.m.

The 24-year-old Yap finished fourth in the first leg in Malaysia last April while King, also 24, settled for sixth in the men’s side of the event put up by ESPN Star Sports to showcase the talents of the Asians in the sport before the world bowling stage.