21st Asian Tenpin Bowling Championship 14 to 24 January, 2011

Malaysia wins first gold 20th January, Abu Dhabi: Muhd Nur Aiman, Syafiq Ridhwan and Aaron Kong led throughout the second block of the Men's Trios event to win Malaysia's first gold medal at the 21st Asian Tenpin Bowling Championships with host UAE taking the silver and bronze medals. Muhd Nur Aiman, Syafiq Ridhwan and Aaron Kong had a respectable 607 opening game at the start of the second block over the short oil pattern yet were able to remain in the lead albeit having their lead reduced from 84 pins to 68 pins. Host nation's Sayed Al-Hashemi, Mahmood Al-Attar and Mohd Khalifa Al-Qubaisi continued to trail the leader after posting 623 followed by the second Korean trio of Choi Yong-Kyu, Cho Young-Seon and Jang Dong-Chul third. The Malaysians returned with consistent games of 644 and 643 to end the block with 3898 to win their first gold medal of the competition. Aiman posted 1245, Syafiq 1346 and anchorman, Aaron the highest 6-games series of 1398. The first Emirati trio could do nothing to overhaul the Malaysians and had to settle for the silver medal with 3914, 75 pins adrift. But the Koreans were denied a podium when the second Emirati trio stormed home to snatch the bronze medal with 3864. "Winning the gold here has certainly erased my disappointment when I won the silver at the World Championship and another at the Guangzhou Asian Games," said Muhd Nur Aiman. Syafiq added that he is pleased with the victory especially making his debut here. "There wasn't really much pressure bowling as an achorman when we had a fairly comfortable margin before the second block," said Aaron Kong, who was also the anchored the Trios in winning the gold at the 2006 Doha Asiam Games. "My team-mates also contributed to this win and their consistency also helped me and took some pressure off. This is our first gold and we hope we can carry this momentum into the team event." Meanwhile, Asian Games triple gold medalist, Choi Bok-Eum shot his second perfect game of the tournament in the final game of this block but his team could only finish fifth with 3774 behind another Korean trio fourth with 3798. Photos by Terence Yaw in Abu Dhabi.