PALEMBANG, Aug 25 — The men’s bowling squad failed to defend their 2014 Asian Games silver medal in the team event, after ending their campaign in the seventh place at Jakabaring Bowling Centre here, today.

The national team of Rafiq Ismail, Timmy Tan Chye Chern, Ahmad Muaz Mohd Fishol, Adrian Ang Hsien Loong, Mohd Syafiq Ridhwan Abdul Malek and Alex Liew only managed to down 8,042 pins, 498 points behind winners South Korea in the team of six event held for first time in the Asian Games, to replace the team of five event.

The defending champions South Korea featuring Choi Bokeum, Hong Hae Sol, Park Jong Woo, Kang Heewon, Kim Jongwook and Koo Seonghoi claimed the gold with 8,540 pinfalls.

The Hong Kong team comprising Ivan Tse, Lau Kwun Ho, Tony Wong, Eric Tseng, Micahel Mak and Wu Siu Hong took home the silver with 8,175, while Chinese Taipei’s Wu Hao-Ming, Lin Pai-Feng, Chen Hsin-An, Hung Kun-Ki, Chen Ming-Tang and Hsieh Ching-Liang settled for bronze with 8,166 pinfalls.

Commenting on today’s performance, team captain Alex said the team could not recover from the bad scores in the second game, despite fighting till the last game.

“I am a bit disappointed as everyone did well in trio event two days ago, but we could not cope with the changes of lane surface today. As there are six men in a team, there were a lot of bowlers playing and maybe we changed the ball quite late.

“However, we did our best, we fought to the end and scored very well in the last game. I am happy we did not give up,” he said.

In the men’s trio event on Thursday, Rafiq Ismail, Timmy Tan Chye Chern and Ahmad Muaz Mohd Fishol claimed the silver medal, while Adrian Ang, Mohd Syafiq Ridhwan and Alex ended the campaign in ninth place.

For the record, Malaysia won silver for two consecutive editions in 2010 Guangzhou, China and 2014 Incheon, South Korea, and the only time Malaysia won a gold medal was during the 1978 Bangkok edition in Thailand.

Malaysia’s challenge will continue in the men’s and women’s Masters event tomorrow and Monday. Rafiq and Mohd Syafiq as well as Syaidatul Afifah Badrul Hamidi and Natasha Roslan advanced to the Masters after finished among top 16 keglers. — Bernama