MANILA, Dec 8— National kegler Siti Safiyah Amirah Abdul Rahman fought hard till the last frame in an effort to secure her maiden SEA Games women’s masters gold medal but had to settle for silver.
The 29-year-old finished second after losing narrowly 213-194 in a tensed stepladder contest against Singapore’s New Hui Fen at the Coronado Lanes, Starmall EDSA, today.
Going into the finals as a challenger after finishing second in the masters ranking, Siti Safiyah overcame Hui Fen with a two-pin advantage in the sudden death after they were tied 190-190 in the first game to drag the match into the decider, but failed to repeat the feat in the second game and let slip of the gold.
“Once in the stepladder finals, I was definitely eyeing the gold but luck was not on my side and I missed. However, I am happy because this is my first medal in the masters of major games,” she said after the medal presentation ceremony.
Earlier, Siti Safiyah made it into the stepladder finals after being ranked second with 3,515 pinfalls in the two blocks of masters event, while former Asian champion Hui Fen led the field with 3,527 pinfalls and her compatriot Shahyna Ng was third with 3,496 pinfalls.
Siti Safiyah, who won the mixed doubles silver with Ahmad Muaz Fishol on Thursday, then ousted Shahyna 234-201 in the semifinals.
Both the 2017 KL SEA Games masters champions, Shalin Zulkifli and Muhamad Rafiq Ismail, failed to retain their titles after missing the cut-off into the top-three stepladder finals.
Veteran Shalin was earlier on track to make it to the final round but ended up in fifth place with 3,415 pinfalls, followed by Sin Li Jane (3,407) in sixth and Esther Cheah (3,342) in ninth among 16 top bowlers in the masters challenge.
In the men’s category, none of the national keglers finished among the top three as Ahmad Muaz Fishol missed by 65 pins behind third-placed Ryan Leonard Lalisang (3,449) of Indonesia, while Tun Hakim Tun Hasnul Azam (3,288) came in eighth, followed by Timmy Tan (3,214) and Muhammad Rafiq (3,197) in 11th and 12th places respectively.
As the 30th SEA Games bowling competition came to an end, the Malaysian camp failed to meet their target of four golds when they won two gold, three silver and two bronze medals.
“I think all team members gave 110 per cent effort but we always missed by just a few points and were not far from our challengers. We also faced challenges with the lanes,” said te 3 Kita juga menghadapi cabaran dengan lane,” Siti Safiyah said. — Bernama
