Bowling: Jazreel shines

There were 85 amateurs in the 153-strong field at the Bowlmor AMF US Women's Open bowling tournament in New Jersey over the weekend.

Only one, Singapore's Jazreel Tan, made it to the five-person step-ladder finals after a tough and exhausting 56-game qualifying campaign.

The Asian Games gold medallist qualified as the fourth seed with 12,090 pinfalls at the Brunswick Zone Carolier.

In the end, Tan, who turns 26 on Saturday, finished third and pocketed US$14,500 ($20,700).

"Well, that was a brutal 56 games and I'm glad to be done with it with my sanity and body still intact, barely," she wrote on her Instagram account.

All competitors at the US Women's Open bowled 24 games over three days.

Those who finished in the top third had eight more games to fight for a spot in the top 24, who then had to negotiate 24 games of round-robin match-play, before the leading five progressed to the step-ladder finals.

STEP-LADDER FINALS

In the step-ladder finals, which featured four American professionals, Tan, who won the South-east Asia Games women's Masters title here in June, edged out three-time US Women's Open winner Kelly Kulick 195-190, before overcoming a 28-pinfall deficit to beat Danielle McEwan 172-165.

However, the Singaporean, a four-time first-team collegiate All-American and this year's PWBA Lubbock Sports Open winner, lost to eventual winner and defending champion Liz Johnson 199-177.

Johnson, 41, the United States Bowling Congress Hall of Famer went on to defeat teammate Shannon O' Keefe 190-189 and become the first bowler to retain the title since Dorothy Fothergill in 1969.

Nine Singapore bowlers were in the initial field, including Shayna Ng (17th), Daphne Tan (19th), New Hui Fen (23rd) and Cherie Tan (32nd).

This article was first published on Sept 8, 2015.
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