Liza cops 2nd gold, annexes all-events

HONG KONG — Liza del Rosario again delivered for the Philippines, winning the women’s all-events for her second straight gold medal in the 17th Asian Tenpin Bowling Championships here.

Last year’s World Cup runner-up beat out Korean Cha Mi-jung and fellow Filipina Ces Yap to win the event and become the most bemedalled kegler so far in the meet featuring the best players from 22 Asian countries.

Del Rosario, ranked ninth in the world, earlier won the gold medal in the women’s singles.

Biboy Rivera failed to duplicate del Rosario’s feat, settling for the silver medal in the men’s all events won by Kim Kyung Min of Korea.

In team events, del Rosario, Yap and Liza Clutario bagged the bronze medal.

Del Rosario’s feat had the Philippines tying Korea for the overall lead with three gold medal each.

The exploits came a day after both the men’s and women’s trios bombed out in their respective fields.

The team of del Rosario, Yap and Irene Garcia-Benitez wound up tied for fourth place along with Taipei and Korea, all with similar scores of 3634. The trio of Liza Clutario, Kathlynn Ann Lopez and team captain Jojo Canare, on the other hand, settled for 11th place.

Four-time World Cup winner Paeng Nepomuceno, Chester King and Rivera could only finish at 16th place in the men’s side with 3532 totals while the team of Botchok Rey, CJ Suarez and RJ Bautista was three notches below at 19th place with 3515 pinfalls.

The other Korean team composed of Kim Suk Yung, Kim Hyomi and Kim Minjung won the women’s gold medal, submitting a total of 3742 pinfalls for a new Asian record, a feat Japan’s trio of Masaru Ito, Isao Yamamoto and Seiji Watanabe duplicated by also bagging the gold medal with a new Asian mark of 3932 in the men’s side.