The 11th Sinai International Open Bowling Championship came to an end with Bahrain and Kuwait taking the honours, reports Ghada Abdel-Kader Bahraini Youssef Al-Falah and Hanadi Al-Mezaiel of Kuwait captured the men's and women's titles in the stepladder finals of the 11th Sinai International Open Bowling Tournament held at the International Bowling Centre in Cairo. Al-Falah provided an unexpected ending as he beat the American top seed Tim Mack 198-167 in the men's title match. The title match was a disaster for Mack as he encountered two opened frames and two identical splits but had a chance to fight back if he had struck out in his last frame. In the first stepladder match, Al-Falah defeated fourth-seed Darren Cundy of England 217-198. Al-Falah advanced to the second stepladder match against the second-seed Sithiphol Kunaksorn of Thailand. Kunaksorn had seemingly wrapped up the match at the halfway mark but three consecutive splits allowed Al-Falah to strike out from frame six to clinch the match 243-201. It was Al-Falah's first time to participate in the championship. "I heard about it. I found the level of the competitors high. In the final match the competition was very strong which motivated me to win," Al-Falah said. Al-Falah took the title and the top prize of $9,000 while the American Mack won second place with $5,000. Kunaksorn, who finished third, took home $3,000 while Cundy came fourth, winning $1,500. Mack's last participation in the tournament was in 2002. "I finished second, too. This year, in the semi-final, my score was much lower than the rest of the week. The final was too low for me. I played two games under 225 the whole week. "I am very disappointed. The lane was much different from the lane we played the whole tournament. "Youssef Al-Falah is a great champion. His performance was one of the best I had ever seen in the past five or six years in bowling." "Youssef Al-Falah amazed us with his high level performance during the championship," said Mohamed Wagdi El-Kurdi, director of the tournament. In the women's final, top seeded Al-Mezaiel beat No 2 seed Nasha King from Mauritius 198- 185. In the first stepladder match, Nadia Aqeel from Bahrain defeated Egyptian Amal Bakr 193- 157. King beat Aqeel 203-193 in the second stepladder match. "It's the fourth time I participate in the championship but it is the first time I've won an international title. In the final match, the competition was furious till the last minute," said Al-Mezaiel. Al-Mezaiel started bowling as hobby before joining the Bahraini team. She claimed the women's title and the $4,500 first place check. King took second place and $3,000, while Aqeel came in third place and took home $2,000. Bakr landed fourth, pocketing $1,000. In the men's round robin finals, Mack came first with 3,998 points. Kunaksorn was second with 3,832 points, Al-Falah third with 3,755 and Cundy fourth with 3,655 points. Egypt's Karim Sherif finished ninth with a total score of 3,529. Amr Essam finished 11th with 3,517 points and Karim El-Gewaili 12th with 3,482 while Tarek Helmi finished in spot No 14th with 3,420 points. "The Egyptian players are getting better with every tournament. They have quite a bright future. I hope to see them very soon in the final and playing against them," Mack said. In the women's round robin finals Al-Mezaiel finished first with 1,575 points, King second with 1,568 and Aqeel third with 1,564 points. Egyptian bowler Bakr came fourth with 1,533 points, Hala Khafagi sixth with 1,469, Aliaa Ismail seventh and 1,416 and Omneya Mustafa last with 1,406 points. "I am totally satisfied with the Egyptian blowers," El-Kurdi said. "Their performance was very good and their spirit is much better." El-Kurdi pointed to the EBF bringing in a new foreign expert, Mario Joseph. "He's been with us for only a few months. We expect to see an improvement in our results after one or two years." Head of the National Sports Council (NSC) Hassan Sakr attended the closing ceremony. President of the Egyptian Bowling Federation (EBF) Ahmed Nasr said the presence of Sakr had "engersised the bowlers. "Bowling isn't a popular sport but the NSC is supporting the EBF to spread the sport all over Egypt," Nasr said.
