Dubai: Thai international bowler Yannaphon Larpapharat cracked into the top eight bracket of the third Dubai International Open bowling tournament's Open division qualifying table to tie second spot with defending champion Shaker Al Hassan of the UAE.
Yannaphon, who won the Macau Open and Indonesia Open titles last year, almost won Day 10 high series with 721 in his second attempt after a decent 704 opening series. But a third try of 639 put him 16th in the table.
The 29-year-old Thai almost took the Dh10,000 perfect game prize when he reeled in 11 consecutive strikes in his third game at the 1.00pm squad yesterday. But he rolled a poor shot in the final throw to land only seven pins for 297.
Yannaphon's superb series of 745 in the squad on 235, 213 and 297 gave him a new nine-game tally of 2170, just one pin shy of leader, Mahmoud Al Attar of the UAE, but shared second spot with defending champion, Al Hassan.
The fourth bowler to crack into the top eight was Kuwait's Basel Al Anzi after posting 740 at the 4.30pm squad for a new nine-game tally of 2169 to take up fourth position. The third bowler to make the top eight today was Joonas Jahi of Finland with 2154 after shooting 750 in the open 10.00am squad earlier.
Day 10 high series winner, Hareb Al Mansouri of UAE slipped down one spot to fifth with 2167 while 2004 World Ranking Masters champion, Mohammad Khalifa Al Qubaisi of the UAE also cracked into the top eight with 2165 after a superb 740 effort. Filipino Jordan Evan slipped down to eighth with 2162 while Ali Ahmad Al Saffer of UAE was knocked out of the top eight. Mohammad Al Jahromi of Bahrain overtook Jahi's 750 effort with a sizzling 751 at the 1.00pm squad to secure a spot in the finals in 16th with 2116.
Biboy Rivera almost rolled the first perfect 300 but ended with 289 but the Filipino rose from 17th to tenth.
