AYG Bowling/Shooting: Singapore boys strike and fire home two bronze medals

Story by Desiree Tay and Jan Lin/Red Sports. Photos by Marvin Lowe/Red Sports.

SAFRA Yishun and Orchid Country Club, Thursday, July 2, 2009 – Shooter Abel Lim and Bowling duo Brandon Lee and Christopher Hwang contributed 2 more bronze medals for Singapore to put the host in fourth position with 3 golds and 5 bronzes on the Asian Youth Games medal tally.

China is currently sitting comfortably at the top with 13 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze medals. Fellow East Asian nation Korea is in second place with just 4 gold, 5 silver and 5 bronze medals, while neighbouring Japan is sitting in third with 3 gold and 4 silver medals.

The bowling team contributed 1 gold and 1 bronze medal in the doubles event. After the girls doubles bagged a second gold for the Republic in the morning, pressure was on the boys to perform in the afternoon.

Though Singapore’s promising pair of Basil Low and Justin Lim slipped up to finish 15th position out of 30 pairs, it was surprisingly the “joker pair” of Brandon Lee and Christopher Hwang who had kept their cool to mount the podium with a total score of 2596 pins.

Their bronze medal feat was registered just about concurrently with Inez Leong’s over at the Bishan Stadium. Just a couple hours earlier at SAFRA Yishun, Singapore had picked up a third bronze medal through Abel Lim Wen Yi in the junior men’s 10m Air Rifle competition.

China claimed a 1-2 finish in this event, with Wu Jianing taking the gold and compatriot Gao Tingjie taking the silver after a shoot-off as they were tied with a score of 686.2 after firing the 10 shots in the final. Wu pipped Gao by just 0.2 points to claim top spot.

The 16-year-old Abel Lim from Kuo Chuan Presbyterian High School fired a total score of 685.6 to claim the bronze medal for Singapore.

Abel had qualified for the final in third position but after the 7th shot was fired in the final, and with only 3 shots remaining, it was announced that Abel had fallen to the 4th position behind the two Chinese and Korea’s Kim Yong.

The tension rose to a high at that point as Kim Yong and Abel swapped positions with each other for the 8th and 9th shots. It was Abel lagging in 4th position on the 9th shot, with one final shot remaining.

Nerves could have gotten the better of Kim Yong, who had finished the qualification in second place, pulled off a miserable 9.2 in the crucial final shot, while Abel finished with a bang in a score of 10.2 to steal the bronze from the Korean.

Singapore’s Wan Tian Chong of Hwa Chong Institution finished in 6th position with a score of 684.5.