Coo, Santarinala rule PBC ladies and men's seniors

MANILA, Philippines - Multi-titled Bong Coo and Lito Santarinala hogged the spotlight Tuesday by bagging the ladies’ and men’s seniors crowns in the 39th Philippine International Open Tenpin Bowling Championships in contrasting fashion at the Paeng’s Midtown Bowl inside the Robinson’s Place in Ermita, Manila.

Behind by 55 pins to erstwhile leader Nelia Santos entering the sixth frame of the last game of the 10-game finals, Coo found her groove and scored six strikes in a row en route to a 230 to post a come-from-behind win with a 1947 aggregate.

Carrying the colors of MBA-Timberpro-Prima, Coo pocketed the top prize of P20,000, while PBA’s Santos (1921) had to settle for the runner-up pot of P10,000 and MBA-Timberpro’s Jingay Farcuri (1831) took third, worth P5,000.

On the other hand, SLETBA-Fil Estate’s Santarinala survived the explosive show of PTBA’s Hilton Hernando in the last two games to capture the men’s seniors championship in the tourney sponsored by UPHS Dalta and Jonelta Systems, Pagcor Sports, DOT, PSC, PCSO, Amway and Colgate Palmolive.

Santarinala closed out his 10-game series by shooting 182 for a total output of 2037, a mere two pins ahead of Hernando, who had had lines of 222 and 241 in the ninth and 10 games, to earn P25,000.

Hernando (2035) wound up second and got P12,000 while Amba’s Cesar Muere (2032) was third and took home P6,000 in the bowling extravaganza organized by the Philippine Bowling Congress and sanctioned by the World Tenpin Bowling Association and Asian Bowling Federation.

With the foreigners starting to arrive since Monday, the foreign category of the Class O men’s and ladies’ masters top qualifiers started to fill up.

Leading the way in the men’s division was Japan’s Tomokazu Maeda, who held the No. 1 spot with a six-game series of 1310 while Qatar’s Abdullah Haroom (1267) and Khalid Al-Dossari (1251), who arrived as early as last week, were in second and third, respectively.

The next three rungs were occupied by Hongkong bowlers Michael Tsang Pak Ke (1220) in fourth, Law Kwun Ho (1190) fifth and Carlos Lai Ka Long (1189) in sixth, while at seventh and eighth were Japanese Tadashi Fujita (1163) and Yusuke Hanamoto (1131).

Indonesia’s Adhiguna Widiantoro (1099) ranked No. 9 and Hongkong’s Michael Chian Liat Lon No. 10 (1073).

On the foreign distaff side, Hongkong’s Tam Shun Yee (1204) was on top, followed by Indonesian veteran Putty Armein (1102) and teammate Ho Sze Yui (1000).