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| The national bowlers were in sizzling form in Jakarta yesterday. - Picture by HAIRUL ANUAR ABD RAHIM |
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| Zandra Aziela Ibrahim in action en route to winning the women’s doubles with Jacqueline Sijore yesterday. |
It was another tight battle at the Jaya Ancol Bowling Centre, but this time it was Malaysia who edged Singapore when Zandra Aziela Ibrahim Hakimi and Jacqueline Sijore combined to deliver the squad's first gold medal of this Sea Games in the women's doubles yesterday.
That was followed later in the day by men's pair Alex Liew and Adrian Ang who also took gold after coming from behind to deny the Philippines Frederick Ong and Biboy Rivera.
Zandra-Jacqueline, trailing after the first three games, turned the tide in their favour in the fourth when Jacqueline almost delivered a perfect fourth game, only a nine-pin ninth frame spoiling it, as Zandra delivered 193 pins for the duo to wrest the lead from Singapore's Cherie Tan and Daphne Tan.
Zandra and Jacqueline downed a total of 2,463 pins to win by seven, while Dayang Khairunisa Abang Jamalidon, a last-minute replacement for the injured Esther Cheah, celebrated an unexpected bronze in her Sea Games debut after a sensational effort with veteran Sharon Koh that saw them climb from 12th after the first game to finish third with a total of 2,413 pins.
It was also a first medal on her Sea Games debut for 19-year old Jacqueline, who dedicated the gold to the injured Esther, a doubles gold medallist with Zatil Iman Abdul Ghani in Korat four years ago. But there was no denying she impressed by keeping cool under pressure, especially in the final four frames in the final game which the Malaysians entered just seven pins ahead of the Singaporeans.
"I just played my game. I knew it was close and I played to the crowd as well. In the beginning the Singaporean supporters were making a lot of noise, so that indicated they were scoring high and were closing in, so I just kept maintaining my shots as I felt I was on a good run," said Jacqueline.
"When the Singaporeans all went quiet, I knew we had it nailed."
Zandra, 25, said the slow start had not worried them as she knew she could count on the promising Jacqueline.
"We took it easy in the beginning, just played our game. But the turning point was when Jacqueline almost hit a perfect game. That pushed us up and we had the lead within sight. We just kept maintaining that as I knew in doubles, it is about the both of us. If I had a bad shot, Jacqueline would cover it and the same if she had one bad shot," said Zandra.
The men's squad matched the women's with the Asian Games gold medal combination of Alex and Adrian knocking down the pins en route to their gold medal with a 2,555 total, although they too needed some inspiration after trailing Filipino pair Frederick Ong and Biboy Rivera in the opening three games. In the end, the Filipinos' 2,490 total showed the superiority of the Malaysians.
Zulmazran Zulkifli and Mohd Syafiq Ridhwan Abdul Malek took the bronze with 2,434 pins.
"We were pumped up for it and I think there is more to come," said Alex, for whom the Jaya Ancol Bowling Centre continues to be a happy hunting ground, this being his sixth title won there and his fifth Sea Games gold. "We had to be a bit patient at the start. In the earlier part our scores were not very high, but we knew we just had to maintain that as we would be scoring high in the final few games after we had warmed up," Alex added.
Adrian, the singles bronze medallist, was just relieved that the combination worked again, having felt the pressure of going into the competition as the Asian Games gold medallists.
"I'm just happy to have delivered with Alex again. Coming here as the Asian Games champions, we felt the pressure and luckily it worked out well for us," said Adrian.
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