Busan bowl hero wrests Masters lead

Fresh from his gold medal victory in the recently concluded Busan Asian Games, RJ Bautista appeared headed for another major victory as he grabbed the lead in the Open Masters of the sixth Chinatrust-SLETBA Open Championship yesterday at the Sta. Lucia East Grand Mall Bowling Center in Cainta.

Bautista took the first block of the Open Masters with a series of 1883, 30 pins ahead of runner-up Maimai Xavier of TBAM-Prima (1853) with Al Dy of AMBA rolling 1835 in this event sponsored by Chinatrust Banking Corp. Sta. Lucia East Grandmall, Freyssinet, New Solanie Hotel, Fuji Films, and Fortune Tobacco.

His feat came after the title-clinching victory of the PBAP-Bowlmart trio of RP national Botchok Rey, Larry Cua and Benny Dytoc in the Masters division.

Likewise, the trio of SLETBA-GMTBC’s Bong Morales, RJ San Diego and Allan Brizuela bagged the Graded team crown while the SLETBA-On the Grill team of Dennis Ramirez, Edel Ocampo and Larry Millan wrested the top spot in the Associate Masters.

SLETBA president Richard Tee and Tournament Director Bong Morales lauded the quality of competition that the jampacked crowd stayed on until the last game. And just when they tought everything was over, Manoy Sengson of TBAM-Prima-Bowlmart rolled a perfect game in the first block of the Open Masters to qualify for the P50,000 bonus prize.

The SLETBA-Bowlmart Youth bowlers dominated the finals of the combined Associate and Graded Masters. Apple Posadas convincingly won the crown with a series of 2469 after 12 games. Elaine Florenzio copped the runner-up finish with 2364 while Amielyn Sisperez took third with 2347.

The Associate Masters Finals turned out even more exciting as there was a change of leadership in every game. In the end, Edrell Dy of PTBA came out victorious with 2575 in 12 games. Oscar Ramirez of DATB and Pabs Penalba of SLETBA wound up second and third with 2498 and 2474, respectively.