SHAHEEN KEEPS POLE POSITION
He held first place last night after the first block of eight games and kept his foot on the gas Friday afternoon to lead throughout the final block and qualify as top seed for the six-man stepladder final. An outstanding average of 244 for Ahmed Shaheen of Qatar (pictured)over the 16 games and a buffer of 233 pins over second-placed Han Jae Ho of Korea was impressive enough and a high game of 299 and 201 low was the reflection of an outstanding series.

Two Qatari, two Malaysians, one Korean and a Singaporean make up the field for the stepladder finale. In the opening game, fourth seed Abdulla Al Qattan joins Alex Liew of Malaysia and team-mate Adrian Ang to vie for a place against second Han Jae Jo of Korea and Remy Ong of Singapore. The winner of that confrontation takes on Shaheen, but the Qatari will be hard to beat and is confident of winning his second 2004 ABF Tour title, his first clinched in Bangkok, Thailand.

"I was a little bit lazy today," said Shaheen. "I feel I could have bowled better with another hundred pins or so. I really didn't have to change anything from yesterday - same ball - same line. Am I confident of a win? Definitely yes!"

SHAHEEN DOMINATES THE OPENING BLOCK
Abdulla Al-Qattan of Qatar put his foot down with a heavy hand at the Jaya Ancol Bowl this afternoon, hitting 783 over his first three games with an opening 237 followed by 267 and 279. He looked impregnable and was, that is until fellow Qatari Ahmed Shaheen pulled up his bootstraps to average just under 250 over his first seven of the eight games, splitting the pins with high games of 279 and 299 along the way.
Al Qattan, maybe shocked by the strong challenge after his massive scores, fell away to fourth place after games of 193 and 192, but came back with a 255 in the seventh game to chase Shaheen from second place.
The eighth game, the final for the day, saw Shaheen still in strike-busting form, come home with a 264, pushing his average up to 251 and opening up a 46-pin buffer over Malaysia's Alex Liew, a talented player who has been there and thereabouts, despite the strikefest of the two Qatari.
"Everything was good today," remarked a very contented Shaheen. The 35-year-old coach to the junior program back in Doha added, "Sometimes something doesn't work and you struggle through a squad. Today was different, everything worked and I felt really good. I knew Al-Qattan was bowling well, too. I know his game and that he's capable of anything. He was disappointed with a couple of 190s and told me he wasn't getting the carry, but he did come back with a 255. Now it's all to play for and I'm looking forward to the last eight games tomorrow."

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