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RP bowlers shut out in trios of world kegfest
By BONG PEDRALVEZ
RolandoBohol.com
Sat Aug 01, 2009
LAS VEGAS – The Cashman Center lanes continued to challenge
and confound the Filipina bowlers, who came up empty-handed again after the trios competitions of the World Women’s
Tenpin Bowling Championships here Friday. Try as they might, the nationals remained unable to unravel this bowling puzzle
as their quest for a medal remained elusive after four days of action in this tournament that has drawn 228 players from a
record 45 countries. Already lagging behind after the first three games last Thursday, both RP trios were unable to gain ground
on the opposition and were way off the frontrunners at the conclusion of the six-game preliminaries.
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| Liza del Rosario In danger of missing the cut in the masters. |
Nowhere was this more evident than in the highly-touted troika of veterans Liza del Rosario, Liza
Clutario and Krizziah Tabora, the 2008 RP Open ladies’ masters champion, who combined for 3,555 pinfalls, to finish
in 29th place. The other team composed of Apple Posadas, Kim Lao and Rachelle Leon were two notches down at the No. 31 after
teaming up for a 3,548 tally in the tournament whose stint is supported by the PSC, Café Puro, UPHS, PAL and Gbox.
“The lanes continued to be difficult to read. But it’s over so we’re focusing on the team-of-fives,
where I hope we can do better,” Jojo Canare, a former national team mainstay now facing her baptism of fire as the RP
women’s coach, said “I simply told my girls to go out there and enjoy the game. I think that is also the same
instructions of the coaches of the other teams are saying to their players,” added Canare, referring to the team event
whose eliminations and medal round are set for Saturday.
Canare has picked Del Rosario, still trying to find her
form that has made her one of the country’s top keglers in recent years, to be the lead-off bowler in the today’s
event, followed by Posadas, Lao, Tabora and Clutario, in that order. When the trios resumed, a shaky fourth game by Del Rosario,
Clutario and Tabora all but dashed the Filipinas’ hopes of finishing among the top four teams and advancing to the medal
round as they carded a woeful 179, 185 and 172, respectively.
A singles bronze medalist in last week’s World
Games in Kaohshiung, Taiwan, Del Rosario’s struggles continued in the fifth game, leaving her first three frames open
but recovered with four strikes in a row en route to scoring 202. Bouncing back from the fourth, Clutario shot 225 while
Tabora had 236 as the trio showed signs of life, but got bogged down again in the last game when Del Rosario scored 178
and Clutario 195. Because of her lackluster outing yesterday, Del Rosario’s bid to qualify for the masters was
also in peril after she plunged to No. 38 with a total of score 3,705 from her tallies from the singles, doubles and trios,
78 pins behind American Carolyn Dorin-Ballard, the 16th and last qualifier thus far with a 3,785 card.
Only the top 16 finishers will get to play in then masters on the final day of the championships on Sunday. “May bukas,
may bukas,” the comely bowler kept saying grimly of her desire to make it to the masters.
Chinese-Taipeh
stunned host US, which topped the trios elims, 660-602, in the finals to win its first gold in the tournament. Denmark
and Japan, the defeated semifinalists, got a bronze each.
RP bowlers have a lot of catching up to do – Coo, Canare
By Bong
Pedralvez
RolandoBohol.com
July 30, 2009
LAS VEGAS – Not for want of trying,
but the performance of the Philippine team in the recently-concluded World Women’s Tenpin Bowling Championships
showed that the Filipino bowlers had a lot of catching up to do become competitive once again in the international arena.
Pitted against the best of women’s bowling, including pros from the United States and Australia – a first for
the event – and “fully-armed” Asian teams such as South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore, the RPplayers
showed they were ill-equipped for the bowling battles that lay ahead of them in the tournament. For one, Philippine Bowling
Congress secretary general Bong Coo , a Bowling Hall of Famer and who dominated the sport in the late 70s to mid-90s, pointed
out that squads such as Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea were here at least two weeks before the tournament to prepare,
adjust to the playing conditions and size up the opposition. “The Singapore team even rented a van to themselves and
did not mingle with the other bowlers.
That shows how focused they were on the tournament,” Coo said. In
contrast, the Pinay bets arrived here merely three days before the event and hardly had time to cope with the jet lag in a
time zone that is 15 hours ahead of Manila – meaning that when they saw action was a time when they were normally asleep
back in the country. “That is part of the physical management of our players. But we didn’t have the resources
of a longer stay here,” said Coo, who disclosed that while the bulk of the of their funds came from the Philippine
Sports Commission, most of the players had to personally raise funds for their stint here.
She likewise thanked
private donors Café Puro, UPHS, PAL and Gbox for making their trip here possible. Now it can be told, Coo said, that
bowlers nearly failed to compete here when the PBC failed to pay for their entry fees totaling $2,000 for the six entries
and were barred from the official practice last Monday until they were able to advance the money from their hotel accommodations.
She added that the P40,000 that was sent by the PBC belatedly was actually part of the fund-raising of the girls.
Coo also pitied national coach Jojo Canare, who was all alone in taking charge of the team, compared to the other squads
that had as many as three coaches, including foreign ones, to help and prep the squads. Canare, a Southeast Asian Games gold
medalist, was a lonely figure at the lanes and had a yeoman’s job of overseeing the nationals, rising up early
in the morning before calling it a day usually around 9 p.m. when the competitions were over, she said. Other teams such as
Hong Kong and Malaysia not only brought in more of their local coaches, but, in fact, were mentored by foreign ones.
Hong Kong was supervised by American Purvis Granger, who formerly coached the RP squad, while Indonesia had the well-respected
Canadian Sid Allen, who is also credited for the success of the Malaysian program that produced world and Asian Games champions
like Shalin Zulkifli. Coo also cited the success formula of South Korea, which bagged two golds – the doubles and team-of-five
– or a third of six gold medals up for grab, plus silver and two bronzes, winding up as the most
successful
country in the kegfest.
“Not only are they trained very well in Korea, but bowling is there life and
nothing else. They also get incentives for winning golds at the worlds, which I understand is $500 a month for life for each
gold the Koreans win,” Coo said.
“We saw how consistent they are from beginning to end. All of them
bowl the same way, which is a major factor for their success,” she added. On the other hand, Canare saw some encouraging
signs in the showing of her charges, despite the fact that they failed to win a medal in this week-long tourney held at the
Cashman Center, a huge convention hall which was converted to a 60-lane facility early this for the US Bowling Congress
Championship and the worlds.
“After overcoming their early jitters, they showed a fighting heart. Our outcome
in the team competitions is an indication that given longer and proper training we can hold our own with other countries,”
said Canare, referring to the RP squad’s 14th overall finish in the event, which ranks as the Filipinas’ the best
for this event.
She said that given more exposure and seasoning, the team of veterans Liza del Rosario,
Liza Clutario, Apple Posadas plus the youthful KrizziahTabora, Rachelle Leon and Kimberly Lao could become a force to reckon
with in the future. Both Coo and Canare agreed that the bottom line to all these aspirations hinged on one thing: money.
Without it, the Philippines, once considered a global bowling powerhouse, will remain in the gutter of the sport.
Pinay bowlers falter again
By Bong Pedralvez
RolandoBohol.com
Wed July 29, 2009
LAS VEGAS, Nevada
- For a while there, veterans Liza del Rosario and Liza Clutario looked like a winning combination that was poised to
pay a handsome dividend in the doubles of the World Women’s Tenpin Bowling Championships yesterday.
But in this gambling town, the fortunes of the veteran Filipina tandem ran out in the face of superior opposition,
foiling their spirited bid to place the country on the medal board on the second day of action of the women’s bowling
showcase.
Running third overall after topping the second squad, the RP duo was overtaken following
torrid performances of teams from South Korea, Denmark and Australia in the third squad, eventually relegating them to sixth
place and out of the running once more at the Cashman Center.
Del Rosario carded 1,309 while
Clutario 1,244 as they combined for 2,549 pinfalls in the event where South Korea blasted its way to a 1-2 finish at the end
of the eliminations.
The pair of Hong Sun-Yeon Son Yun-hee, seeing action in the first squad,
scored 2,616 for first, three pins up on their compatriots Gang Hye Yun and Hwang Sung Ok, who competed in the last
squad.
Denmark’s Anne Gales and Rikke Rasmussen copped third after pooling 2,608 while
the Australian pair of ex-pro Carol Gianotti and Anne Maree Putney, the 2007 World Cup champion, captured fourth with
a 2,570 output, 11 pins ahead of the Filipinas, to round out the cast of qualifiers in the medal round set for tomorrow.
Only the top four finishers play for the gold with the top seed taking on No. 4 and the No. 2 tackling
No. 3 in one-game knockout matches, whose winners clash in another one-game playoff for the crown. The losers are assured
of bronzes each.
“The two Lizas played well and have nothing to be ashamed of. It’s
just that our foes did better, particularly those who played in the last squad,” said national coach Jojo Canare after
the heartbreaking day for the RP bowlers. “But we have to move on and look ahead.”
The other Filipina pairs of Apple Posadas and Krizziah Tabora, who totaled 2,298, and Kimberly Lao and Rachelle Leon, who
combined for 2,294, were a distant 60th and 73rd place, respectively, in the tourney whose trip is sponsored by the PSC, Café
Puro, UPHS, PAL and Gbox.
Canare’s decision of combining her veterans looked like money
in the bank as the country’s medal hopes rose when Del Rosario and Clutario simultaneously exploded with 243s in the
fifth game on lanes 30 and 31, vaulting them to third overall at that point.
But while Clutario,
best remembered for winning the ladies’ masters gold in the 2005 Southeast Asian Games, closed out with a 222,
Del Rosario capped her six-game series with a 181 that apparently did the team in, despite the fact that she scored
better (1,305) than her teammate (1,244).
Both of them, together with the small Filipino gallery
watching, had to anxiously wait for the third squad’s results for another three hours, only to painfully see that their
performances were not enough.
But the medal chase continues for the Pinay bets with the trios
competition eliminations Thursday.
Del Rosario, Clutario and Tabora will team up in the first
squad in the morning while Posadas, Leon and Lao compete in the second squad in the afternoon.
RP keglers struggle in trios of world women’s tilt
By BONG PEDRALVEZ
RolandoBohol.com
Wed July 27, 2009
LAS
VEGAS - Trials continued to hound Team Philippines in the trios of the World Women’s Tenpin Bowling Championships
at the Cashman Center here Thursday. Struggling at what national coach Jojo Canare described as “tricky” lane
conditions, the Filipina bowlers foundered and were way down in the standings after the first three games while the crack
teams of host US, South Korea, Denmark and Colombia flourished with soaring scores at the vast 60-lane bowling facility.
To underscore this, the unheralded troika of Apple Posadas, Kimberly Lao and Rachelle Leon fared better
than their fancied teammates of Liza del Rosario, Liza Clutario and Krizziah Taborah, pooling 1,763 pinfalls, good for 28th
place.
They were 197 pins behind pacesetting Colombia, starring heart throb Juliana Guerrero, who had an eye-popping
three-game series of 257, 276, 202, for a high 245 average, anchoring her team to a commanding
1,960 tally.
Occupying the next three spots after the Colombians were the Americans (1,942), Koreans (1,930) and Danes (1,929),
who were second to fourth place, respectively.
On the other hand, seasoned campaigners Del Rosario, Clutario and
Tabora were at No. 34 after tallying a 1,756 aggregate, as both RP squads now face an uphill battle in catching
up with the leaders with three more games left to play Friday. “The lanes have been tricky these past few days.
The conditions are always changing from one lane to another,” said Canare, whose charges’ stint here is sponsored
by the PSC, Café Puro, PAL, UPHS and Gbox.
“We really need to do well in our last three games tomorrow
to remain in contention. It’s going to be difficult but we will try,” said Canare, adding that they will also
use the outing in assessing the lanes’ further in preparation for the team-of-five competitions on Saturday. “They
should score in the high 200s tomorrow so we can have a chance of making it to the medal round,” said Philippine Bowling
Congress secretary general Bong Coo, who exhorted the players to rise up to the
challenge.
Just like
the singles and doubles, only the four top teams after the preliminaries get to play for the gold. There was even more bleak
news from the Philippine camp. Del Rosario, who was running 15th after the singles and doubles, dropped out of
the top 16 after a so-so three-game series of 597 (179, 213, 205) in the trios for a 3,153 aggregate, sending her down
to 22nd place.
Only the top 16 players after 24 games starting from the singles to the team competitions
get to see action in the prestigious masters event on Sunday. “Del Rosario should take care of her position so she can
play in the masters. But she’s a veteran and I believe she can recover,” Canare said.
Clutario (3,026)
was further behind in 67th place while Lao (2,915) was at 114th spot. In the singles, Team USA’s Stefanie Nation subdued
Mexico’s Sandra Gongora, 167-131, in the finals to clinch the gold, while South Korea’s Hwang Sung-Ok
and Gang Hye-Eun dumped Denmark’s Anne Gales and Rikke Rasmussen, 484-384, to capture the doubles gold.
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