10th August, Jakarta: Singapore's pair of Jason Yeong Nathan and Carl de Vries put in a scintillating performance in the Men's Doubles Squad B of the 19th Asian Tenpin Bowling Championship to snatch the Gold medal from Squad A leader, Chinese Taipei.

Who would have thought that after a disasterous start by Nathan with 154 and de Vries with 169 in the first game would give the pair a chance of a medal. But it turned out, both played their hearts out with a better second game of 460 to put them seventh and 70 pins behind the leader.

Nathan and de Vries continued their relentless pursuit after impressive totals of 431 and 454 in the next two games to move up to third. The magic was then turned on when both had sevent strikes-in-a-row which immediately caught the attention of everyone at the packed Jaya Ancol Bowl.

Nathan went on to his strikefest with four more strikes and with the final frame, Jaya Ancol Bowl was suddenly quite anticipating the firt perfect game to take place. As cool as ice, the 23-year-old delivered a perfect shot and the magical 300.

Inspired by the perfect game, de Vries also posted 264 in the same game to give the champion a 564 total and allowing them to take over the lead with the final game to play. Needing only 330 to beat the Squad A leader's score, the pressure was lifted off and they cruised to a comfortable 404 to snatch the Gold with a total of 2638, 70 pins ahead.

"After our disasterous start, we just didn't want to think about it but to get on with the game," said the 23-year-old debutant de Vries. "In fact we didn't realise that we had seven strikes but was just enjoying ourselves.

"We really inspired each other all the way and only when I shot the perfect game, we were told that we stand a good chance of winning a medal," said the reigning national champion making his second Asian Championship appearance.

Chinese Taipei's Yang Nien-Hua and Cheng Chao-Yu settled for the Silver medal with 2562 followed by Qatar's Abdulla Al-Qattan and Ahmed Shaheen in third with 2556 to claim the Bronze medal. Squad B pace-setter, Han Ji-Hoon and Chung Seung Wan finished fourth with 2507.

"Although we feel a bit disappointed to be beaten into second place, we are still very because we played a lot better today," said the 28-year-od Cheng, who won 2 Gold and 1 silver in the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok. Cheng's partner and 2002 Milo International Junior All-Stars champion, Yang was equally happy and to have won a medal in his debut is a dream come true.

"We didn't really have a good start this morning in Squad A but when we got into our strides, we were feeling confident that we catch up with the leaders," said Shaheen, the former AMF World Cup champion. "We were fortunate that we can cover each other but were disappointed to end the event to trail the Taiwanese by 6 pins.

The win has also moved Jason Yeong Nathan into eighth in the All Events

table on a 12-game total of 2516 with Malaysia's Alex Liew and Azidi Ameran occupying the top two spots on 2575 and 2559. Nathan's teammate, Remy Ong is third with 2557.

Photos by Terence Yaw.