Singapore fell short of a historic team gold at the World Bowling Championships yesterday, but it was not for a lack of effort.
The quintet of New Hui Fen, Shayna Ng, Jazreel Tan and sisters Cherie and Daphne Tan finished runners-up after losing 209-214, 177-188 to Malaysia at the Las Vegas South Point Bowling Centre.
Under the Baker format for the best-of-three final, the 10 frames for each game are divided evenly among the five keglers.
Joey Yeo, who featured in the semi-final win against South Korea, was a reserve for the final. The 19-year-old said on Facebook: " It's been a rough week on the lanes, and we're grateful to have won a silver medal for the team event.
"A huge thank you to everyone who has helped us thus far."
The Republic qualified for the last four as top seeds with 6,325 pinfalls, ahead of second seeds Malaysia (6,227).
Against the South Koreans, Singapore lost the first game 202-203, before mounting a comeback to win the next two 218-215, 213-209.
This was the second major loss for Singapore's female keglers to Malaysia this year. They also lost the SEA Games women's team gold to their fierce rivals in August.
Singapore senior assistant coach Jason Yeong-Nathan said: "I'm very proud of the team as they fought very hard today.
"We have been struggling to find the right match to tackle the very difficult set of lanes throughout the first three events over the past week, and for the team to come up top of the field going into the semi-finals, was an amazing feat."
"Yes, the team was disappointed with being so close to winning the gold, but they (will) learn and come back even stronger."
The silver medal sees Singapore better their showing at the 2015 Women's World Championships in Abu Dhabi, where they finished third in the team event. Then, Ng had also won the country's first World Championships gold when she bagged the individual all-events title.
Ng and Cherie have qualified for the Masters event in Las Vegas which will be shown live on StarHub TV Ch 203 (Hub Sports 3) from 6.10am today.
