Youth Bowler Displays Perseverance in Competition

National youth bowler, Michaela Oehler was the highest finisher from our Singapore's team in the 38th Penang Pesta International Open. Michaela finished tenth in the Women's Open Masters and was the only bowler from our team to advance to the second stage of the Women's Open Masters held on 23 December 2010 at Sunshine Square, Penang.

During the Women's Open Masters, Michaela together with fellow bowlers Calista Tan and Ilma Nur Jannah qualified to the Women's Open Masters Qualifiers, however Calista and Ilma were knocked out in the semi-finals and finished in the 13th and 15th positions respectively.

"I told myself to keep my focus during the competition and though I was tired, I did not give up and continued to give my best performance," said Michaela. "The support from my mum, my team mates and Coach Eugene kept me going despite me feeling tired after days of qualifying and to go through the Women's Open Masters that followed the next day after the Youth Open Masters."

Michaela Oehler, 1st Runner-Up in Youth Girls Open Division

Michaela competed hard against other prominent female bowlers which included Sharon Koh and Esther Cheah of Malaysia and Clara Lau of Singapore who came in third in the 41st Singapore National Bowling Championships. For a young bowler like Michaela, it is definitely a challenging task for her during the Masters, being the only bowler from our team to advance to the Women's Open division finals and having to compete against other bowlers who had more bowling experience from major games and competition.

Apart from the Women's Open division, Michaela came in second in the Youth Girls Open division with a total of 2046 pinfalls after 10 games in the Masters, finishing behind champion Syaidatul Afifah of Malaysia with 2133 pinfalls.

"Frankly, I did not expect a podium finish. I was just focussed on doing my best and carrying out the skills taught by my coaches." Said Michaela.

When asked about what she's hoping to achieve in 2011, Michaela hopes she can continue to put in her best performance for each tournament and improve her games.

Competing also in the Youth Girls Open division from SBF's team were Ilma Nur Jannah, Calista Tan and Felicia Teo who finished in the 7th, 10th and 15th positions respectively.
Jason Lim was the only bowler from our boys team to advance to the Youth Boys Open Masters and finished in the 19th position. Fellow bowler Danish Ramlan had a narrow miss to qualify in the Youth Boys Open Masters with his 25th position in the qualifiers.

This competition has provided our youth bowlers a good platform to compete amongst other youth bowlers as part of the bowling learning pathway in benchmarking their skills and eventually improving their game to stand up to the competition.