MARC Custodio and Stephen Diwa lost to South Korea’s J. Geun and B. Junghun 1-2 in the semifinals last Wednesday night and settled for the men’s doubles bronze medal in the International Bowling Federation Under-21 Championships at the Olympia Bowling Center in Helsinborg, Sweden.
The Pinoy duo started strong to take the first match 269-249 but faded in the last two matches 205-269 and 225-241, enabling the South Koreans to advance to a championship showdown with host Sweden, a 2-0 winner over Malaysia in the other semis encounter.
Behind the solid partnership of C. Eklund and R. Ilhammar, the Swedes swept the South Koreans 279-207 and 278-258 to bag their second gold medal after Eklund ruled the men’s singles in the 35-nation tournament.
“I’m happy that our national team is not going home empty-handed. Our bowlers had a very short training period for this world youth tournament since the COVID-19 pandemic closed down our local bowling centers,” said Philippine Bowling Federation President Bong Coo.
Coo said the PH will gear up for the IBF World Cup and 26th Asian Tenpin Bowling Championships set Nov. 3 to 16 and Nov. 20 to 30, respectively, in Australia and Hong Kong. — Bong Pedralvez
