SINGAPORE - The nation's bowlers broke an eight-year drought to clinch the SEA Games women's team gold on Friday (Dec 6), but the work is not over for Shayna Ng, New Hui Fen, Daphne Tan and Cherie Tan.

For the quartet will be aiming to end their campaign on a high in Saturday's Masters event.

Cherie, 31, said: "Today is over. We cannot control what happens (tomorrow) but we are going to focus on the process and grind it out."

The team clinched the title after scoring 4,833 pinfalls at Manila's Coronado Lanes. Malaysia (4,803) were second, followed by the Philippines (4,735).

Daphne said: "We did it. This gold is for those who believe in us."

Ng added: "It was long-awaited but it was very worth it, we fought all day together and communicated really well as a team. We were patient, we were striking and things fell into place for us today. It feels good now that we can walk away with the gold medal."

The quartet were also part of the team that last won the gold medal at the 2011 SEA Games in Indonesia, with Jasmine Yeong-Nathan and Jazreel Tan completing the line-up.

Ng, 30, added: "We understand each other very well.

"We play together every day and so we know what we do well, and also what we don't do so well, (it was) camaraderie that brought us the gold today."

The bowlers were pictured cheering for each other throughout the final, which was what Cherie felt kept them going throughout the game.

She said: "We just focused on our process and took it one step at a time. We were reminding each other to take good shots."

After emerging champions in 2011, the women bowlers were pipped to the gold by Malaysia in 2015 and again in 2017.

Friday's victory was New's second gold of the tournament, but it held more significance to her than the women's singles title she had clinched on Tuesday.
The 29-year-old said: "The team gold will always be the most important gold to win. I'm very happy that my team gets to walk away with the team gold hanging around their necks."

After their victory, Singapore Bowling Federation president Jessie Phua said: "It was redemption time for them. I'm glad that the girls brought it to the finish line.

"With every narrow loss, it brought about stronger determination and they wanted this more than anything else."

The men's team, who were defending champions, failed to retain their title, coming in fifth with 4,652 pinfalls. Malaysia were this year's winners (4,980), followed by the Philippines (4,937) and Thailand (4,896).