Bowling: Youth keglers look to build on successful Asian Junior C'ships outing

SINGAPORE - Last week's stellar outing at the 21st Asian Junior Tenpin Bowling Championships has vindicated the Singapore Bowling Federation's (SBF) decision to outsource its national development squad programme to seven academies islandwide.

A gold from Lim Shi En in the Masters event on Friday (Aug 19) saw the Republic end their campaign in Bangkok with five medals - three gold, one silver and one bronze - to finish top alongside Chinese Taipei.

In fact, Singapore claimed more silverware but these were not included in the medal tally. While countries could field two teams, only medals won by one team were officially counted to prevent stronger nations from dominating the tournament.

Alvin Koh, SBF's head of centre of excellence and coach development, said the association is looking for more training and competition opportunities for its youth athletes, through initiatives like the introduction of a ranking exercise, more overseas exchange programmes and tournaments.

He said: "The team has executed the game plan well. However, we have noticed the level of competition is getting tougher each year. We will need to continue to improve our programme and develop an even stronger competition mindset."

Before the programme was introduced last year, the national development squad was previously managed solely by the SBF, along with the national training squad, national squad and major Games squad.

National senior assistant coach Jensen Lim said: "Regardless of results [in Thailand], this is the beginning of their competition pathway and the experience and lessons learnt are essential to their further development.

"With this experience acquired, athletes are more aware of their strengths and weaknesses like staying positive when setbacks occur."

This was Shi En's first international event since the pandemic struck. After nine-weeks of intense preparations, which included a five-week training camp and a four-week peaking cycle in Singapore, she felt ready.

The Singapore Sports School student, 16, said: "I had no expectations on winning and my focus was on the process, just giving my best and be prepared to cope with the unexpected. I'm proud and happy I was able to win because there were so many good bowlers."

Experiencing the different standards and styles of play was exciting for Nur Irdina Hazly, 15, who came in third in the Masters event on Friday.

She was pleased with how she handled the mental aspect of her game, which enabled her to remain calm and manage her emotions well.

"Performance-wise I did my best and was rewarded but there's always room to do better," she said. "One of the areas which I will definitely be working on moving forward is getting warmed up faster in the starting games and adjust quicker to the lane condition."