THE medals they won may have been silver, but Singapore's keglers were as good as gold during Saturday's bowling team events at the Asian Youth Games.

In the girls' team event, Darshini Krishna, New Hui Fen, Anthea Soh and Ilma Nur Jannah were lying in third place after five games, 83 pinfalls behind Japan's Yuka Ohshima, Mikie Hamamoto, Shinobu Saito and Misaki Mukotani.

But the four Singaporeans turned on the style in the decider, posting a competition-high of 928 to overhaul the Japanese and give the leading South Korean team a mighty scare.

Oh Nu Ri, Yoo Ka Hee, Hong Hae Ni and Sim Ul Jin held on for gold with a combined score of 4,967. Singapore was second with 4,894, while the Japanese (4,715) settled for bronze.

It was the same story in the boys' event, where all looked lost for Basil Low, Brandon Lee, Christopher Hwang and Justin Lim.

After five games, the Singapore boys were marooned in fourth place, 163 pinfalls adrift of leaders Hong Kong.

But they blitzed the lanes in Game 6, where a 918 gave them a combined total of 4,952 pinfalls for the silver.

Hong Kong (Wong Kwan Yuen, Tsang Yin Ki, Tse Chung Yin and Michael Mak) won gold with 4,971, while the bronze went to South Korea's Choi Kyung Hwan, Hwang Dong Jun, Nam Ki Hoon and Park Ji Soo (4,935).

The Republic's medal tally in bowling now stands at two golds, two silvers and a bronze.