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NEWS & EVENTS
Lawn bowler finishes 8th at World Cup
Tuesday, March 21, 2017

BRUNEI Darussalam lawn bowls athlete Haji Osman bin Haji Yahya slipped to eighth place overall in Men Section 2 after losing to Isle of Man’s Mark McGreal 1-16 3-10 in the final group game of the Lawn Bowls World Cup Singles in Warilla, Australia at the Warilla Bowls & Recreation Club in Shellharbour, New South Wales yesterday.

The lawn bowls athlete would have hoped to restore some pride after a difficult campaign and victory over the Isle of Man rival would have been enough to secure seventh spot who had come to the tie protecting his ranking.

The Bruneian had spent most of his time in seventh place despite an indifferent form but a 7-12 4-11 loss to New Zealand’s Ali Forsyth- who sealed direct qualification to the semi- finals via- put his seventh place ranking in uncertainty.

South Africa’s Pierre Breitenbach has led the table overnight but Forsyth made a late resurgence to avoid the eliminations finals after boasting a superior goal differential with both finishing the section with the same number of points.

It was a tough ask for Haji Osman to outwit the Isle of Man bowler whose losses came against the top six barring ninth-placed Turkey’s Ozkan Akar.

His compatriot Ampuan Hajah Lilimaryani binti Ampuan Haji Salleh had a chance to overtake Carol Broomfield in 9th place in Women Section 1 but faltered to a narrow 5-9 6-7 loss to the Spaniard and finished in 10th place.

Malaysia will have two representatives in the last-four phase of both the male and female sections as Soufi Rusli and Norhashimah Ismail came out of their elimination finals unscathed.

The Malaysian pair earned their berths in the elimination finals after finishing third in their respective sections.

Soufi edged Breitenbach in a thrilling 3-12 11-4 3-1 win while Norhashimah overcame Philippines’ Ronalyn Greenlees with a straight set 10-5 8-5 win.

Guernsey’s Lucy Beere will play Australia’s Natasha Scott in the first women’s semi-final while Norhashimah meets Jo Edwards who has aspirations of winning a historic fifth World Cup Singles crown. The Malaysian will also be setting her sights to follow in the footsteps of countrywoman Siti Zalina Ahmad in winning the women’s title.

Courtesy from Borneo Bulletin