Gatchalian bid for crown foiled

Joonee Gatchalian fell short of his bid to add the Indonesia leg crown of the Aviva Bowling Tour to the growing list of victories by the Filipinos on the international bowling stage when he lost to Wu Siu Hong of Hong Kong, 249-236, in the finals Monday night at the Jaya Ancol Bowl in Jakarta.

It was a sorry loss for Gatchalian, who had looked forward to a successful stint in this fourth leg of the six-stage series culminating in the Grand Slam Finals in Singapore early next year when he humbled RP team coach Purvis Granger in the semifinals.

Sustaining the momentum of his explosive games in the first two days of the elims, Gatchalian nipped Granger, 244-238, to arrange a showdown with the 19-year-old Wu, who knocked out Thailand’s Annop A, 278-227, in the first semis match.

Both bowlers started off the final match with just a spare each but it was Wu who showed his determination to win by stringing together four strikes in a row to take the lead. But Gatchalian responded from frame 3 with his own four-bagger to almost level the score in frame 6 with just three pins separating the two.

However, Wu rounded the match striking home from frame 9 for a total of 249 and although the Filipino bet struck home from frame 10th, it proved too late.

Gatchalian settled for $2,300 as he jumped to No. 11 with 60 points in the Aviva ranking paced by Granger, last year’s grandslam champion who took home $1,200 for 181 ranking points.

Wu won $5,000.

Vanessa Fung made it a sweep for the Hong Kong bets by capturing the women’s title, beating local favorite Happy Soediyono, 225-214, for second ABT title.

The tour’s next stop will be the Singapore Ranking Leg to be held on Nov. 3 in Singapore.

The Aviva Asian Bowling Tour provides the first regional ranking system for bowlers. The Tour also features $226,000 in prize money. The Tour is supported by Aviva (previously known as CGU), one of the largest insurance companies in the world, and sanctioned by the Asian Bowling Federation and each country’s bowling association. The Singapore Tourism Board is the official partner. Official magazine is the Asian Bowling Digest. The event is supported by Royal Selangor and organized by ESPN STAR Sports. The Indonesian Leg has Bank Nisp as an official partner.