By MARK REY MONTEJO
The Philippines rallied mightily in the final frame to stun South Korea and capture the team event gold Monday in the 21st Asian Youth Tenpin Bowling Championships at Blu-O Rhythm & Bowl, Major Cineplex Ratchayothin Monday, June 10, in Bangkok, Thailand.
Drawing big games from Marc Custodio and Zach Ramin, the Filipinos overhauled a 96-pin deficit after tallying 943 against the 826 of the Koreans in the 6th and final frame to win by 11 pins.
In that frame, Custodio sizzled for 277 but it was Ramin who delivered the telling blow after making a strike. Ramin emerged as the second best scorer for the PH team with 253 followed by Artegal Barrientos and Stephen Diwa, who had 220 and 193, respectively.
In all, the Filipinos posted 4933 – Custodio (1329), Barrientos (1321), Ramin (1176) and Diwa (1107) – to win the event for the first time since the inaugural edition in 1981 which the country hosted.
Host Thailand finished third (4918).
However, only Barrientos (3763), Custodio (3760), and Ramin (3679) made it to Top 16 and qualified to the centerpiece Masters event slated Tuesday.
Thai Vilinkorn Kiedkaew led the qualifiers after posting 3880 pins followed by Taiwanese Lan Shao Kang (3828), Muhammad Hariz Adlan Azman (3794), including list are Seungwoo (3742), Tsen Fan Yew (3723);
Blake Walsh (3716), William Pettit (3709), Hassan Qasem (3704), Baek Seungmin (3699), Lee Myeongchol (3693), Park Soowan (3644), Muhammad Samah (3635) and Aiman Lim (3619).
