Daphne to the fore as Singapore dominate women's singles
Singapore women rule bowling singles event at Orchid Country Club
She described her performance like a schizophrenic "stock market".
And when Singapore's Daphne Tan went on a bull run, she was unstoppable, romping to the SEA Games women's singles bowling gold at the Orchid Country Club last night. She recorded a six-game total of 1,368 pinfalls.
She put together 10 strikes in a row after an opening spare and finished with a nine for an opening round of 289, the highest game of the day.
While she flirted with scores either side of 200 in her next four games, Tan turned on the style in the last game, starting and ending with four-baggers for a 247.
"I'm really happy because I really wanted this gold," said the 24-year-old, whose only other singles title was at the 2013 Asian Indoor Games.
"The good start obviously helped. I didn't pay attention to the other bowlers' scores. They are all very strong competitors, so I just focused on my tempo and took things from there."
SECOND SWEEP
For the second time at this SEA Games - after the women's 10m air rifle singles success - Team Singapore finished one-two-three again as the female keglers lived up to their billing as a blue-chip team, giving the bubbly 200-strong crowd lots to cheer about.
Jazreel Tan, the most bemedalled athlete at the Asian Games last year (one gold, two silvers, one bronze), gave as good as she got, taking the lead after the fourth game, and leading by seven pinfalls going into the final game.
The 25-year-old was undone by two open frames in the last game, however, and had to be content with a turkey finish and a final round of 185 en route to a total of 1,313 pinfalls and the silver medal.
She said: "I'm pretty satisfied with my performance today.
"I didn't make many mistakes until I missed the spare in the final game.
"I'm sad not to have won the gold, but I'm also happy because my teammate and a fellow Singaporean did."
Daphne's sister Cherie finished third with 1,294 pinfalls but, because SEA Games diplomatic rules state each country cannot win three medals in a single event, she had to give up the bronze to Malaysia's Esther Cheah.
Singapore filled up five of the top six positions, with Shayna Ng fifth (1,288), New Hui Fen sixth (1,278) and Bernice Lim 10th (1,245).
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