ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan – Cue artist Rubilen Amit settled for a silver medal while the women’s bowling national team scored a big win in the semifinal round in the 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games (AIMAG) Tuesday at the Ashgabat Olympic Complex here.
Amit, the 35-year-old former two-time 10-Ball World Championship winner, lost to rising star Chen Siming of China in their gold medal game, 7-5, at the Billiards Sports Arena.
Amit was ahead 3-2 after five racks, but miscues and bad placing in the next four racks allowed the 23-year-old Chen to win consecutive games and take control with a 6-3 advantage.
Amit, who made it to the finals by beating Taiwan’s Wei Tzu-Chien, 7-3, in the semifinal, won the 10th rack to make it 6-4, and after a missed shot by Chen on 11th, Amit was able to close the gap at 6-5.
But there was no stopping the Chinese as she cleared the 12th rack off a good break to clinch the gold medal. Amit’s silver medal finish was an improvement from the previous bronze medal she earned during the 2013 AIMAG in Incheon, South Korea.
The national women’s bowling team, on the other hand, placed fifth in the quarterfinal round with a score of 2353 behind Taiwan (2487), China (2457), Korea (2453) and Indonesia (2442).
In the semifinal stage, the women’s team defeated Zhang Chunli, Peng Rui, Yang Liyan and Zhang Yuhong of China, 780-737. Tabora led the Philippines with 224 points, followed by del Rasario with 206, while Sy and Posadas finished with 192 and 158 points, respectively.