BOWLING – BAHRAIN’S superstar bowler Yousuf Falah was crowned champion of the Bahrain Bowling Federation (BBF) National Day Tournament 2025, which came to a close on Saturday night at Funland Centre’s lanes.
The competition, which offered an attractive prize fund of $20,000, was held over the past two weeks and featured a large field of elite bowlers from the kingdom, the Gulf and beyond. It is one of the most prominent events on the BBF’s annual calendar, and it took place as part of the kingdom’s National Day celebrations.
Falah secured the title after defeating fellow-Bahraini Khaled Sameer 476-371 in the two-game final match-up. Falah was not to be denied in their head-to-head, taking game one 219-178 before closing things out with a dominant 257-193 score in the second game.
Earlier, in the semi-finals, Falah beat another countryman in Ali Al Mass 227-201 to punch his ticket to the championship-decider, while Sameer was an impressive 289-221 victor over Kuwait’s Waleed Al Azmi.
Al Mass later went on to claim third place overall after winning 227-193 against Al Azmi in their concluding classification clash.
At the end of the final day’s action, a closing ceremony and awards presentation was held, attended by BBF vice-president Ahmed Al Benzayed, along with BBF secretary general Issa Taqi and treasurer Abdulrahman Al Rashdan, in the presence of a number of BBF board members and other sports officials.
BBF president Saleh Al Bufalah expressed his pride in the tournament’s success, noting that it was the result of co-ordinated efforts by the BBF board, organising committees and supporting entities.
The competition kicked off with a multi-day qualification phase, during which participants needed to play a minimum of three trials for their scores to be considered. That set the stage for the ensuing knockouts, which featured three stages before heading to the semis.
Falah made it into the opening knockout round where he was amongst 20 participants. He was classified third in this phase with a 220.2 average and 1,101 total after five games, earning his spot in round two.
There, he continued his fine play where he posted a 228.6 average from a 1,143 total in another five games, placing second amongst 12 bowlers and putting him through to round three, which featured the top eight who were divided into two groups.
Falah was in Group B alongside Sameer, Bahraini junior Zeyad Al Awadhi, and Kuwaiti Aseel Al Roomi, while Group A was composed of Al Mass, Al Azmi, junior player Nawaf Al Tamimi from Saudi Arabia, and Emerson Gotencio from the Philippines.
Following a single round-robin, the top two moved on to the head-to-head semi-finals, where Falah ousted Al Mass and Sameer beat Al Azmi, setting up their title showdown.
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