DOHA, Qatar, Oct. 3: Bannered by their formidable Ladies Division Team, the Dubai Filipino Bowling Club (DFBC) lane masters once again emerged as overall champion in the just concluded 13th GCC All Filipino Bowling Tournament held in Doha, Qatar. Giving the back to back champions a run for their money were the pin busters of the Filipino Bowling Federation in Qatar (FBFQ) of host country Qatar who clinched the first runners-up post. Meanwhile, the surprise package of the annual tenpin bowling event the king pins from Kuwait represented by the Philippine Bowling Association Kuwait (PBAK) also dished out an equally impressive performance throughout the 4-day competition to bag 3 gold medals on their way to a second runners-up finish.

The highly anticipated tenpin bowling competition organized and participated in by Filipino overseas workers from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait kicked off at the Qatar Bowling Center with the Ladies Division bowlers suiting up for the Team Event. The heavily favored DFBC 1 of Dubai started their title retention bid by storming in front after two games after carding 1,794 pin falls from their game scores of 929 and 865. Kuwait’s PBAK 1 (1,763) headed by Shay Lao, Emma Gatus, Elvie Sotio, Blanca Sambajon, Marj Mercado and Sonia Mathews remarkably recovered from a low 809 in the opening game when they rolled a 954 in game two while not far behind at this stage were Qatar UFBQ 1 and Riyadh 1 with 1,729 and 1,714 in that order.

The lady strikers of PBAK 1 grabbed the lead 2,681-2,644 as they stole the thunder from the Dubai keglers in game three 918-850. Going to the final game of the event, UFBQ 1 remained in third with 2,604 pin falls followed by Riyadh 1 (2,599) and Jeddah 1 (2,593). Displaying the form and composure that have made them looked invincible in the past few staging of the GCC AFBT, Clarisse Corpuz, Uella Marcial, Tess Victoria, Elsie Marcial, Liza Lugto and Tina Tabon went on to win the title as they hanged on to nip the fast closing UFBQ 1 led by Llany Manza, Valerie Canchela, Eurika Bilan, Tess Macatula, Perla Tanafranca and Rica Macatula 3,563-3,558 for the gold medal. PBAK 1 settled for the bronze medal after finishing with a 4-game tally of 3,517 pin falls.

In the Men’s Division Team Event, Kuwait-PBAK 1 were off to good start taking the lead at the halfway mark of the 4-game series event with 2,104 pin falls followed by Abu Dhabi 1-2,063, Sharjah 1-2,039, Qatar AFTC 2-1,999 and Al Khobar-1,932. In game 3, Qatar AFTC 1 (3,131) led by the highly charged Kennedy Alfaro snatched the upper hand with Sharjah 1 (3,068) moving up to take second followed by PBAK 1 who slipped to third with 3,047 pin falls. At this stage, Dubai 1 (3,033) also moved into contention together with Jeddah 1 and Qatar UFBQ 1 who submitted 2,970 and 2,949 respectively. By closing out with a 1,033 in game 4 and garnering final 4-game tally of 4,164 pin falls, Qatar AFTC 2 composed Kennedy Alfaro, Romy Eborde, Rey Alfaro, Bobby Ayson, Fred Albarico and Joel Oliveros grabbed gold medal at stake. Taking the hotly contested first runner up position were Tony Zuleta, Rudy Zablan, Kiko Andaya, Tony Bustria and Cris Bulacja of PBAK 1 who edged the Sharjah 1 team of Butch Vargas, JP Vargas, Hermie Reseposco, Ricky Esteban, Dennis Gustillo and Amerig Bilocura for the silver medal 4,050-4,041. Wrapping up the opening day schedule was the Trio Event for Ladies were Dubai 1 snatched its second gold medal finish of the day courtesy of Uella Marcial, Clarisse Corpuz and Elsie Marcial who topped the field with a combined 4-game tally of 2,247 pin falls. The silver medal went to Abu Dhabi 1 (2,165) composed of Raquel Hayes, Lorna McDonald and Marilyn Gumawa with Al Khobar 1 (2,141) pocketing the bronze medal. In this event the Kuwait-PBAK 1 with Marj Mercado, Emma Gatus and Blanca Sambajon finished in fourth place with 2,061.

The second day of lane hostilities which started with the Trio Event for men was just like day one of the competition as Dubai 1 opened up the curtain by taking the gold medal. Responsible for bringing Dubai’s gold medal haul to three were Philip Raymundo, Ricky Reyes and Jordan Evan whose total score of 2,487 was 60 pin falls better than the 2,427 tally of silver medalist Al Khobar 1. Going home with the bronze in this event was Al Khobar 3. As the Ladies returned for the Doubles Event, Dubai 1 once again stamped their class over the rest of the field as the mother and daughter tandem of Elsie and Uella Marcial picked up their third gold medal after turning back the Abu Dhabi 1 pair of Raquel Hayes and Marilyn Gumawa 1,552-1,529. In the mad scramble for the bronze medal, Lennie de la Paz and Alice Apolto of Al Khobar 1 scraped out a nerve whacking 1,431-1,428 win over Marj Mercado and Blanca Sambahon of PBAK 1. The other PBAK 1 pair of Emma Gatus and Shay Lao with 1,420 missed the bronze by 11 pins. In the last event of the day, the Kuwait delegation finally got its first taste of victory when the partnership of Rudy Zablan and Chris Bulacja (1,631) brushed aside four other title hungry pairs to emerge with the gold medal in their hands. Just 10 pins away in second was UFBQ 1 with 1,621 followed by bronze medalist AFTC 1 also of Qatar with 1,617, Jeddah1-1609, Al Khobar 1-1,605 and the Kuwait 3 duo of JR Sabado and Edwin Latoja with 1,583.

Moving on to the third day of the competition, Elvie Sotio handed Kuwait-PBAK 1 their second gold of the tournament in the Ladies Singles Event while proving that the Dubai ladies are beatable after all. With a 6-game series score of 1,161 Elvie Sotio towed Raquel Hayes (1,131) of Abu Dhabi 1 and Merlyn Pamintuan (1,116) to the winner’s podium. Jane Nance and Blanca Sambajon who finished 9th and 10th were the other highest ranked keglers from Kuwait. Still without a gold going to the next event, the pin busters from Saudi Arabia finally broke into the winners circle thanks to the determined Edwin Avelino of Al Khobar 1 who bagged the Men’s Singles title after carding a total 6-game series of 1,338 pin falls. Young and promising UFBQ 1 kegler JP Macatula (1,300) grabbed the silver while taking the bronze was Nonato Yap of Jeddah 1 who barely defeated Edwin Latoja of Kuwait 1,294-1,288.

Based on the total scores in the four completed events namely Team, Trio, Doubles and Singles, the All Events Champions were declared prior to the highly anticipated Masters Event. In the men’s Division, Al Khobar 1 standout Edwin Avelino with 3,716 took the All Events title followed by JP Macatula of UFBQ 1 and Kenedy Alfaro of AFTC 2 with 3,712 and 3,709 respectively. In the Ladies Division, Raquel Hayes of Abu Dhabi 1 was the All Events winner with 3,403 pin falls to her name beating Uella Marcial (3,311)) of Dubai 1 and Merlen Pamintuan (3,276) of Jeddah 1. With only one event left to be contested, the Top 36 Ladies and Top 48 Men bowled in the 8-game series Masters all eyeing for a place in the finals where the Top 3 will vie for the title. After 8 grueling games, Dubai’s Uella Marcial (1,514) easily topped the Ladies Division side and joining her in the finals were team mate Clarisse Corpuz (1,483) and UFBQ’s Llany Manza who edged Kuwait’s Shay Lao for the third finals berth 1,481-1,476. In the opening match of finals Clarisse Corpuz sneaked past Llany Manza 166-151 to advance to the championship match where Uella Marcial collected her fourth gold of the tournament after beating Clarissse 185-172.

Finally, in the Men’s Division Masters, Kuwait’s Edwin Latoja (1,704) made up for his heart breaking fold up in the Singles by taking the twice to beat top finalist position. Out to challenge Edwin for the coveted title were Qatar’s Willy Cuison (1,701) and Rey Alfaro (1,685). A tenacious Rey Alfaro showed Willy Cuison the way out 212-198 and then went on to forge a deciding game after he literally demolished Edwin Latoja 222-148 in the next game. Undeniably the hot favorite after his impressive win in game one, Rey Alfaro suddenly found a different opponent in game two as Edwin Latoja regained his composure. Eked on by his team mates from Kuwait, Edwin succeeded in giving his team its third gold via a 190-172 victory. After the awarding of the highly successful tournament, 13th GCC AFBT Chairman Oliver Fabros of FBFQ turned over the task of hosting the next GCC to Sharja, UAE represented by Butch Vargas.