Clutario finishes 6th in Singapore

Current Asian No. 1 Liza Clutario failed to live up to her ranking as she fell by the wayside early in the stepladder finals Sunday and limped home sixth in the women’s masters event of the 36th Singapore Open ruled by Evelyn Chan at Victor’s Superbowl in Singapore.

Clutario, who finished sixth in the second and final block of the women’s masters, could only churn out a 201 effort in the first match of the stepladder finals as the member of the world trios champion and a world championship runner-up bowed to Taiwan’s Chu Yu-chieh, who had a 222.

But none from the challengers was able to prick Chan’s bubble as the local star disposed of teammate Jennifer Tan, 204-193, to win her first international title.

Chan, who injured her lower back in Thursday’s Masters qualifiers, looked in control throughout the day. She started the morning’s second block of 8 games in the Masters finals with a 109-pin lead and finished her series with a 79 pins margin. In the stepladder final against teammate Tan, Chan was never troubled despite playing with a heavily strapped back.

"No doubt, this was only my third step-ladder final," said Chan, who is only in her first full season on the Singapore national team. "But I’m playing on home ground and in front of the home fans, so I only had to worry about my bowling and not the crowd. Although I was away from serious competitive bowling for the last five years, I had been training on my own with Jack Wong. I also have to thank my Chinese physician who helped me with my back injury."

American Dino Castillo copped the men’s masters crown with a 228-183 win over Remy Ong of Singapore, who came from sixth place in the stepladder finals to vie for the crown.

The Filipino male bowlers struggled in the final block and failed to contend for the title with Joonee Gatchalian and Purvis Granger finishing 12th and 13th and Chester King at 18th.