RP bowlers brace for finals in Asian bowling

The RP bowling team with Liza del Rosario and Chester King at the helm, begins the ball rolling for the country in 2005 as it competes in the Grand Finals of the Asian Bowling Tour in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Set Jan. 13-16 at the Jaya Ancol Bowl, the Tournament of Champions features the 18 men and top 16 women bowlers in the Asian region based on their respective tour rankings.

Del Rosario, fresh from her semifinal stint in the World Cup last month, along with King, a World Cup quarterfinalist, head the seven-man RP squad vying for top honors in both the men and women’s division, respectively.

The rest of the Filipino team includes Biboy Rivera, Joonee Gatchalian, Tyrone Ongpauco, Irene Benitez and Jojo Canare.

King is on top of the men’s class with 162 ranking points while Benitez is the highest ranked among the Filipinas at no. 2 with 173.5 points, just below leader Putty Armein of the host country (199).

The 26-year-old Del Rosario, winner of last year’s ABF Asian Bowling Tour Grand Finals, is at seventh with 132 points.

Malaysia had the most number of entries among the eight competing countries with 10, followed by the Philippines.

Last year’s no. 1 in Asia Zhalin Zulkifli leads the Malaysian assault that also counts on Sarah Yap, Wendy Chai, Tang Joh Six and Esther Cheah in the women’s side while the men’s class has Daniel Lim, Alex Liew, Ben Heng, Adrian Ang and Azidi Ameran.

Other prominent names who made the cut are current Asian top male bowler Ahmed Shaheen of Qatar, Hong Kong star Wu Siu Hong, Remy Ong of Singapore, who made the quarterfinals of the World Cup, as well as compatriots Jack Wong, and Jennifer Tan.

Aside from Armein, Indonesia has two other bets in the Grand Finals — Ryan Lalisang and Happy Soediyono.

Tournament format will have bowlers competing in a round-robin first round on the first two days of the meet. The top eight at the end of the qualifying will advance to the single-game elimination knockout rounds.

The ABF Tour is comprised of six legs and a Grand Finals. Each leg was staged over two competition days where the top 16 men and 16 women bowlers from the preceding international Open Masters Event (Open Grade) competed in a one-game match play knock out competition for the individual and women’s titles.

Benitez won the Philippine leg of the Tour held last summer.