Liza holds own vs Malaysians

SINGAPORE — Liza del Rosario banked on a mighty start as she kept in step with the rampaging Malaysians in Thursday’s start of the 2002 Aviva Asian Bowling Tour Grand Slam Finals at the Cathay Bowl Safra Resort here.

A Manila leg finalist, del Rosario won five of her first eight games for a total pinfalls of 1767, good enough for third place going into Friday’s last seven games.

Unlike del Rosario, Irene Garcia-Benitez could not get going as she could only come up with an aggregate score of 1534 for 14th place in the 16-woman field.

"So far, so good," said the 23-year-old del Rosario. "I just hope I could maintain my game and make the quarterfinals."

Del Rosario, whose best games are two 245s, faltered in her last two games but that did not stop her from keeping within sight the Malaysians, who crashed the magic eight.

Lei Kin Ngoh (1872), Choy Poh Lai (1795), Wendy Chai (1738) and top seed Shalin Zulkifli (1703) sandwiched del Rosario in the first five places while Japan’s Hiriko Shimuzu (1693), Singapore’s Yap Seok Kim (1679) and another Malaysian Sarah Yap (1677) round up the magic eight.

Benitez, a two-time semifinalist in the preliminary legs, is expected to go for broke Friday as she tries to make the cut.

The country’s other hopes, Purvis Granger, Paeng Nepomuceno and Chester King are currently battling 15 others at presstime in this four-day event sponsored by Aviva-Asia with support from AMF, Royal Selangor and the Singapore Tourism Board.