KUALA LUMPUR, March 25 ― Malaysia strikes their first gold medal through Muhammad Rafiq Ismail at the 18th Asian Youth Tenpin Bowling Championships in Macau today.

The squad A leader, Muhammad Rafiq remained unchallenged and celebrated his 18th birthday today by winning the Boy's singles gold medal.

According to Asian Bowling Federation (ABF) in its website, the 2015 Asian Championships all-events silver medalist, Muhammad Rafiq set the record-breaking benchmark of 1,615 pins in the opening squad to win the gold by a comfortable margin of 135 pins.

“I could not have wished for a better birthday present than to win my first gold medal here,” said the estatic Muhammad Rafiq, who won two silver and a bronze medal at the Asian Championships in January this year.

“And to break two records in the process has put the icing on the cake. I hope to carry my form into the doubles, team and masters events,” he added.

The Malaysian also erased the three-games record of 765 with 845 pins and in the six-games record of 1,509 both set by Jason Belmonte of Australia in 2004 in Bangkok.

While squad B leader, Enrico Lorenzo Hernandez of the Philippines, who rolled the tournament's first perfect game, took the silver medal with 1,480 pinfalls and Javier Tan of Singapore, who finished second to the Filipino, picked up the bronze medal with 1,433, a further 47 pins away making it an all-lefty 1-2-3.

Tomorrow, 40 participants including four Malaysian girls ― Natasha  Roslan, Nora Lyana Natasia, Nur Amirah Auni Azman and Nur Syazwanu Sahar ― will take the lanes for their singles events.

Competition will resume with the Boy's Doubles on March 26 and the Girl's Doubles on March 27. ― Bernama