Asian Schools Team Finishes Fifth On Medal Tally in Hong Kong

Australia’s Asian Schools team has returned home from the 2019 Asian Schools Championship in Hong Kong after finishing fifth on the overall medal tally with one silver.

On the opening day of competition, former World Junior representative Nixon Chan opened Australia’s account taking silver in the singles competition. Chan averaged 229 across six games to finish in second and 70 pins behind gold medallist – Hideaki Hata from Japan and 9 pins ahead of Hata’s teammate – Naoto Kanno in third.

On day two Sarah Pennicott and Lilly Wilson were Australia’s best pairing in the doubles event, finishing 9^th with Cameron Stein and Chan finishing the best of the Australian boy’s pairings in 14^th.

On day three, the Australian’s entered the team’s competition with their eyes on medals and keeping their master’s qualification chances alive.

In the girls event, Australia’s A team was led by Grace Fahy who averaged 206 across the 6 games to see the team finish fourth overall and finish 351 pins away from a bronze medal in the event, where Japan won the gold. The Australian A boy’s team finished in 9^th.

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With strong individual performances in the singles, doubles and team’s events, Grace Fahy finished 14^th in the All Events with Amy Shoesmith also qualifying for the Masters after sneaking into the final event by 4 pins in 16^th place. Cameron Stein finished 6^th in the boys All Events.

In the Masters, Fahy won 8 of her 16 matches and after finishing with an average of 203, the Victorian finished in 9^th place with Shoesmith finishing in 12^th after 6 wins and averaging 198.

In the boys Masters, Australia’s only representative, Cameron Stein fought in the opening block to win three matches and after winning a further three in the second block, the Queenslander finished in 14^th.

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At the conclusion of the tournament on Friday, Singapore emerged as champion of the girl’s division with a medal haul of 2-1-2 while Japan was champion in the boy’s division with a haul of 3-2-3. Japan were crowned the overall champion of the tournament with 5 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze medals.

Singapore finished second overall with 2-1-3 and Hong Kong A third with 1-1-0. Qatar won one gold medal in the Boy’s Doubles and one bronze medal in the Boy’s All Events.

Hideaki Hata of Japan was voted the most popular boy by all the players while Arielle Tay was voted the most popular girl.

A flag ceremony was held where Ms Vivien Lau passed on the flags to Mr Alexander Lim of Philippines Bowling Federation, who will host the 21st edition of Asian School Tenpin Bowling Championships in Manila in August 2020.

For all the finals standings visit http://www.asianschool2019.com

All photos courtesy of HKTBC and Terence Yaw www.asianschool2019.com