AYG Bowling: Huifen strikes first gold for Singapore

Story by Jan Lin and Marvin Lowe/Red Sports. Pictures by Marvin Lowe/Red Sports.

Orchid Country Club, Wednesday, July 1, 2009 – Singapore bowler New Huifen won the host’s first gold medal at the Asian Youth Games (AYG) when she knocked off 1359 pins over 6 games to claim top spot in the girls’ singles event.

The 17-year-old Auckland University of Technology student has gone into the history books by beating 35 bowlers for the elusive gold medal.

The calm, cool and collected Huifen had the home crowd glued to their seats and shouting their hearts out in support of their local heroine, as she certainly lived up to her billing by beating her closest competitor Misaki Mukotani of Japan by a comfortable margin of 45 pinfalls.

Despite a slow start in the first of the six games, Huifen gradually picked up pace and went into the final game with a 66-pin lead after knocking a sensational 9 straight strikes in the fifth game.

Even though the Singaporean was hitting strike after strike, her competitors kept her on her toes as well.

The eventual runner-up Misaki had, in fact, knocked down 10 strikes in a row to signal her intentions as she finished with a 279 for her fifth game, which meant that Huifen needed to score at least a 200 to seal her victory.

Keeping her composure and focus on getting the task done for Singapore, Huifen showed no signs of distress even when the strikes didn’t come as she duly picked up all the spares that she needed.

In the very last frame, Huifen needed to spare to seal her victory and she did so with sheer class, knocking down the single pin seven to finish her final game with a score of 204 that was more than enough to seal the deal.

The crowd erupted with delight and her team mates mobbed her to celebrate her victory and Singapore’s first AYG gold.

“This gold medal means a lot to me,” said Huifen. “It’s more than just personal glory, I hope this will spur my team mates on and other Singaporeans to believe that they can achieve as well.”

“I respect Remy (Ong) a lot because of how when he may have fared badly in the first few games, but he has consistently been able to come back from behind to win it,” revealed Huifen, who had mimicked her idol’s ‘style’ of coming from behind to strike a memorable gold today.

Team manager and coach, Mervyn Foo, was extremely proud of his charge’s display.

Mervyn commented, “Huifen is a very talented girl and today she showed that she has the composure to win big games. I am very happy for her and proud of her achievements today. She has given our country the first gold and that’s a great honour for us.”

Teammates Darshini Krishna of Tanjong Katong Girls’ School also did well to finish 5th with 1270 pinfalls (averaging 211.7), while Anthea Soh bowled 1184 pinfalls (averaging 197.3) to finish in 13th place.

A handsome cash incentive will accompany Huifen’s historic win.

Earlier in the day, the Singapore Bowling Federation (SBF) made a surprise announcement that the total cash incentive for each gold medal won for the Republic in the bowling competition will be doubled to S$4,000.

Jessie Phua, President of Singapore Bowling, announced her pledge to match up a dollar to dollar with the reward program initiated by Orchid Bowl. This is the first time Singapore Bowling has partnered Orchid Bowl in a reward programme for a major bowling competition

"When Mr. T. K. Chew of Orchid Bowl offered to reward our young bowlers with a cash incentive for every gold medal won at the AYG, my immediate response was - I'll match you,” said Phua.

“This is not only in support of my young bowlers for their first international tournament of such scale,” Phua stressed, “more importantly I hope this can help jazz up the atmosphere a little more for the inaugural AYG!"

Chew Teck Keng, general manager of Orchid Bowl said, "Orchid Bowl has always worked closely with Singapore Bowling as our partner and is happy to reward our Team Singapore youth bowlers for their achievements in the 1st Asian Youth Games on home ground."