Sarawak kegler Ashraaf denies top two seeds to lift Storm U22 title

KUCHING (Jan 28): Muhammad Ashraaf Ahmad Syukri of Sarawak outbowled top seed Emmanuel Fo Yung Khee of Sabah and second seed Lavinia Kho Jia Jie of Sarawak to emerge as the U22 champion of the Storm U22 Storming Asia (Sabah & Sarawak) at Megalanes Sarawak, Emart Batu Kawa on Monday.

The trio opened the stepladder final with a strike each and 18-year-old Ashraaf from Kuching who is the third seed matched Lavinia strike for strike until the sixth frame when he had a spare. Lavinia looked like favourite to win until she picked up spares in the ninth frame and 10th frames, closing out her game with 266 pins to finish second.

Ashraaf went on to hit five consecutive strikes and scored 277 pins to walk away with a sponsorship to play in the U22 Fukuoka Summer Cup in Japan.

Earlier in the stepladder semi-finals, Ashraaf registered 286 pins to overcome  Sarawak’s Eldred Kho Yek Zhen (224) and Muhammad Faris Faiq Afilah of Sabah (185). Ashraaf collected another prize in the U18 where he won with 2,701 pins followed by teammates Muhammad Hafidz Daniel Nazri Abdullah (2,584) and Neilvis Ferdinand Ngali (2,525).

As runner-up Lavinia earned a sponsorship to compete in the U22 Hong Kong Storm Cup. Emmanuel Ko, who managed 249 pins to finish third, picked up a sponsorship to compete in the Sarawak International Open Bowling Championship.

Muhammad Faris also collected a second prize as he won the U15 category with a score of 2,569 pins beating Saiful Iman Shah Abdullah of Sarawak (2,543) and Fazwil Al-Farish Mohd Al Faizal of Sarawak (2,513).

Sarawak made a clean sweep of the U12 competition, with siblings Maihanna Mazuan (2,522), Maisara Mazuan (2,260) and Isabel Mok Yi Nuo in the top three. The competition which attracted 64 participants from Sabah and Sarawak, is organised by Storm Malaysia and its representative Matthew Ong Tzi Ming gave away the prizes.