UAE trio put up scintillating show

The UAE bowlers brought more honour to the country by adding a second silver medal in the trio competition at the Asian Games in Busan yesterday.

Shaker Ali, Hulaiman Al Hamly and Mohammed Al Qubeisi won the silver medal in the bowling trios event which concluded at the Homeplus Asiad Bowling Alley.

The UAE bowlers were close to clinching their first gold medal. They scored 3,874 points, while the Singapore trio of Yu Wen Lee, Heng Soon Goh and Remy Ong scored 3,961 points which gave them the first place and the gold medal.

The Philippines trio of Constantino King, Christian Suarez and Leonardo Rey equalled the UAE's score by also scoring 3874 points. This helped them to share the silver medal with the UAE bowlers.

Due to two silver medals being awarded the presentation of the bronze medal was cancelled. Shaker scored 1367 points in the six games. His scoring sequence read as follows: 258, 192, 244, 289, 182, 202 with an average of 228 points per game.

Hulaiman scored 1270 points with a sequence of: 203, 248, 170, 193, 211, 245 with an average of 212 points/game. Al Qubieisi brought in a score of 1237 points with his sequence reading: 183, 193, 191, 218, 237, 215 with an average of 206 points /game.

The second UAE trio, who had entered the competition, comprised of Sultan Al Marzouqi, Naif Aqab and Sayed Ibrahim finished in 11th place with 3675 points. The individual scores had Sayed Ibrahim notching up 1272 points, Naif with 1222 and Sultan with 1181.

The UAE delegation were delighted with their silver medal following the first silver medal won last Thursday by Shaker Ali in the singles event. Shaker Ali said that he was glad with his second silver.

"The most important thing in winning is to raise the UAE flag high in the Asian Games, I am proud that my country's flag was raised high and the UAE anthem was played. This is one of the greatest moments of my life," said Shaker Ali to Gulf News after the UAE's win. He added that the UAE trio were not far from winning the gold.

"Singapore widened the gap in the fourth and fifth games. This made it difficult for us to catch up with them," he said. He added further that bowling is a game built mostly on luck.

"Bowling is about 75 percent luck. If we were lucky yesterday, we could have won the gold. Sometimes you play well and lose if you are not lucky enough. However, we must thank God for the silver."

Shaker said that he would enter the teams event today and the Masters tomorrow.
"We will do our best in the events today and tomorrow. I hope luck will be on our side."