MANILA, Philippines - With the top guns missing in action Monday, an obscure campaigner from PTBA (Playdium Tenpin Bowling Association) grabbed the early lead in the Class O men’s all-events competition of the 41st PBC-POC-PSC Open championships at the SM lanes in Mall of Asia, Pasay City.
Sherwin Go, a PTBA member who has become a fixture in various local tournaments, carded a total of 1938 pinfalls to pace TBAM-Prima’s Ivan Malig (1857) and PTBA-PSB’s Steve Robles (1829) in all-events.
Go tallied 588 and 513 in separate singles action, 436 in doubles and 401 in trios to produce the best all-events score so far in the P1.5 million kegfest sponsored by the Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee, Boysen, Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, Team Prima, F.R. Sevilla Construction and HCG.
Other all-events leaders are SLETBA’s Lito Santarinala and TBAM’s Rochelle Munsayac in Class A and ATBA’s Rene Rodelas and BALP’s Nida Lagrisola in Class B.
Santarinala submitted 1925 to finish ahead of DATBI’s Marwin Santiago (1897) and Kenneth Go (1890), Munsayac posted 1806 to move past TBAM-Prima’s Abbie Gan (1775) and Bernadette Ipapo (1685), Rodelas recorded 1779 to lead MTBA’s Phaul Perez (1760) and CETBA-Prima’s Aui Padawan (1729) and BALP’s Lagriisola tallied 1797 to pull away from MBA’s Jessica Rivera (1567) and TBAM’s Pure Anselmo (1566).
Anne Agu, 14-year-old TBAM-Prima campaigner, emerged as early frontrunner in the Youth girls’ competition with a two-game series of 989.
Agu’s teammate, Bernadette Ipapo, checked in second with 959 while MBA-Sarimanok’s Jessica Rivera (883) finished third at 883.
PBC president Ernesto “Toti” Lopa is overall chairman, while Girlie Solis is the assistant chair of the tourney which features only local bowlers.
“We have to develop new stars,” said Lopa. “Hopefully we’d be able to discover new faces with great potentials after two weeks”.
Top prizes in men’s and ladies’ Open Masters event are P120,000 and P100,000, respectively.