BAHRAIN’S Yousef Falah was crowned champion of the 18th SBF Men’s Bowling Championship, which came to a close late Saturday evening at Bowling City in Jeddah.
Falah captured his title after defeating fellow-Bahraini Ahmed Al Qaoud in the decisive match-up of the Stepladder final round.
Holding a twice-to-beat advantage, Falah needed two games to overcome the spirited challenge of his younger rival. Al Qaoud took the first game 234-221, but Falah made no mistake in the second as he registered a convincing 258-184 win for the crown.
Earlier in the step-ladder Al Qaoud beat Saudi’s Abdullah Al Dailigan 266-194 to set up his battle with Falah.
In the previous step, Al Dailigan had narrowly overcome countryman Adel Al Barqi 214-211, with Al Barqi earlier beating fellow-Saudi Yasser Abulreesh 235-186 in the first match-up of the Stepladder finals.
Berth
All five players had booked their berth in the title-deciding phase after excelling in the preceding semi-final round, which featured a total of 18 bowlers.
Falah had topped this stage to earn his top-seeding in the Stepladder plus his twice-to-beat privilege. He finished with a 236.63 average and 1,893 total over the semi-final’s eight games. He nearly had a perfect game in the third in his series, but came up just one pin shy with a 299 score. His low of the series was 190, which was the only time he went below 200 pinfalls.
Al Qaoud secured the second seed with a 228.63 average and 1,829 total, while Al DAiligan was third on counts of 216.00 and 1,728. Al Barqi (215.63, 1,725) and Abulreesh (215.5, 1,724) completed the advancing bowlers.
Bahraini Mohammed Al Mannaei just missed out on a place in the Stepladder. He finished the semi-finals in sixth place just 25 pins behind Abulreesh.
Following the finals, Falah, Al Qaoud and Al Dailigan were presented their respective trophies in a podium ceremony attended by officials from organisers the Saudi Bowling Federation.