Abu Dhabi: South Korea dominated the Masters finals as the World Bowling Championships 2014 concluded with Kang Hee Won capturing their fourth gold medal and Park Jong Woo and Choi Bok Eum winning their third and fourth bronze medals.

A packed house at Khalifa International Bowling Centre witnessed yet another thrilling and exciting finale to the 13-day-long world-class bowling championships. Like the 5-player Team finals on Saturday, the tie was decided in the tenth and final frame between South Korea and the United States.

All Events and Team silver medallist, Mike Fagan of USA started the final match with a double strike in his two opening frames but Kang went one up with three strikes-in-a-row from frame 3 to open up a small lead.

The American responded well with a double in the fifth and sixth frames to level thing up. Fagan’s attempt to take the lead landed him a poor shot with a 2-4-6-10 split in the seventh frame to fall 16 pins behind the Korean.

Just when the match had favoured Kang, he too stumbled to a similar split in the ninth frame. Fagan’s opportunity to win USA’s first gold in the championship came to an abrupt halt when he encountered yet another 4-6 split in the ninth frame. And despite striking out from the tenth frame to end with 198, all Kang needed was to mark his tenth frame to take victory. The Korean delighted the crowd and his team-mates by striking home to win the tie with 213.

“I had a good match with Park which gave me the confidence needed to face the American,” said the 32-year-old national rookie, who won the Team gold medal at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon two months ago.

“When I made a bad shot in the ninth frame, it didn’t bother me too much and I said to myself all I needed was to put in full concentration in my next shot. And when Fagan had another split in the ninth frame, I knew I had the chance to win the match.”

The champion eliminated twin gold medalist, Park Jong Woo, 231-190 in the all-Korean semi-final match to earn a crack at the title while Fagan ousted top seed and third Korean, Choi Bok Eum, 212-197 in the other semi-final.

The 13-day championships drew 272 players from 49 countries. The event was wholly supported by Abu Dhabi Sports Council with the help of sponsors Borouge, a leading provider of value-creating plastic solutions for infrastructure and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc).

The championships were co-organised by World Bowling and Emirates Bowling Federation with support from Zayed Sports City.