KUCHING: Several international legendary bowlers, including Amleto Monacelli from Professional Bowler’s Association USA are among 500 bowlers from 12 countries who will be participating in the Sarawak International Open Tenpin Bowling Championship 2019.
The competition will be held from September 7-10 at Megalanes Sarawak, Batu Kawa, here, and will be played under three categories — youth, graded and open.
Assistant Minister of Youth and Sports Datuk Snowdan Lawan said to date the organisers have received confirmation from more than 450 players from 12 countries, and is still awaiting confirmation from a few more countries, including Kuwait and Bahrain.
Snowdan, who is the chairman of the event organising committee, said countries which have confirmed their participation are USA, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Chinese Taipei, China, Japan, Korea, Pakistan, Brunei Darussalam and Malaysia.
He said the national full team comprising 32 bowlers from the elite national team, back-up team and national youth team have also confirmed their participation and will arrive here on September 6.
“We are expecting a record number of more than 500 entries for this year’s championship, which is higher than the previous years,” he told a press conference here on Thursday.
Snowdan added that the response for this year’s tournament has been very good.
This tournament is also a good exposure for Sarawak bowlers to compete against top keglers from other countries, he added.
Also present at the press conference were chief executive officer of Sarawak
Sports Corporation Dr Ong Kong Swee and vice-chairman of Sarawak Amateur Bowling Association Sarawak (Abas) Robert Lu.
