23rd August, Jakarta: Malaysian trios of Alex Liew, Azidi Ameran and Aaron Kong staked their claim on the Masters title of the 3rd Indonesia International Open Bowling Championship at Jaya Ancol Bowling Center when they stormed into the top 10 of the leaderboard.

The trio, who took three of the four semifinal spots in the ABF Tour Tailand leg in May but settled for second to fourth, gave notice to their opponents that they are serious this time round. Aaron Kong, whose last triumph was taking the Milo International Junior All Stars title in December last year, completed his 4-game squad for a total of 995.

Kong's consistent line was 234, 266, 238 and 257 put him comfortably in eighth position in the Men's Open Masters qualifying leaderboard. At the same squad, his teammate and Bahrain Open champion, Alex Liew also made the cut with 984 to take up 12th spot.

But the best score so far acheieved by a Malaysian today was Azidi Ameran's 1015, just a few lanes away from Kong and Liew.

Azidi ended the first game with a superb 289 and then followed it up with 244, 247 and 235 to become the sixth bowler in the championship to surpass the 1000-mark. Singapore's Remy Ong dropped one spot to fourth on a score of 1006 while Helmi Chew took 11th with 988 and Carl De Vries finished 12th in the mixed pool with 952.

Meanwhile, Malaysian bowlers stole the limelight today with Wendy Chai and Choy Poh Lai storming into the women's qualifying table in fifth and sixth positions respectively. Chai totalled 913 with lines of 182, 239, 234 and 258 while Choy returned 228, 208, 277 and 194 for a total of 907.

World Youth Gold medalist, Angkana Netrviseth of Thailand edged the two Malaysians when she knocked down 265, 246, 211 and 203 for a total of 925 to take up second behind current leader, Jojo Canare of the Philippines on 931.

Qualifying ends tomorrow and the top 36 men and top 24 women will contest the masters finals over two blocks of 8 games each on 25th and 26th August.

Detailed scores: Men's O Qualifying | Women's O Qualifying | YB Qualifying | YG Qualifying | Photo Album.

Photos by Terence Yaw.