Nat’l bowlers trail leaders in world tiff

Biboy Rivera and Chester King combined for 2689 as the Philippines stood 24 pins adrift of pacesetting Finland at the start of the inaugural World Men’s Bowling Championships at the packed Homeplus Asiad Bowling Centre in Busan, South Korea yesterday.

Rivera rolled big rounds of 258, 268 and 256 to pool a six-game series of 1424 on the long oil pattern while King scored 1265, spiked by a 248 in the second frame, for RP‘s 2689 aggregate for second place in the first of three doubles squad events slated in the opening day of the championships which drew 44 countries.

The Filipino duo actually burned the lanes in the early going, posting a high 506 in the second frame only to slow down in the next four games with a 430 average.

Rivera finished with a 237 average while King had a 210 as the Philippines settled for second behind Finland’s Kimmo Lehtonen and Lasse Lintila, who teamed up for a 2713.

Finland also sizzled in the opening frame with a 510 aggregate, struggled with a 360 in the next but picked up its game with 488, 451, 502 before settling down with a 402 in the sixth game to seize control.

Malaysia’s Daniel Lim and Aaron Kong had a 2636 for third, 77 pins behind the Finnish duo while Singapore and France scored identical 2616 to share fourth place.

The United States and the Netherlands took the next two spots with 2581 and 2559, respectively, while Australia landed in eighth place with a 2557 followed by United Arab Emirates (2550) and Germany (2540) in that order.

Five sets of doubles are on tap with the last two slated to be played today. The team with the highest combined scores will win the gold medal.

Former World Cup champion Paeng Nepomuceno is teaming up with CJ Suarez for RP’s second.