Bowler Cherie Tan wins gold at Women's World Championships

National bowler Cherie Tan has become the first Singaporean to win a gold medal in the Masters category of the Women's World Championships on Saturday morning (Aug 31, Singapore time).

The 31-year-old defeated Colombia's Maria Rodriguez 203-201, 258-217 in the final at the South Point Bowling Plaza in Las Vegas to clinch the Republic's first gold at the world championships since Shayna Ng won the All Events title in Abu Dhabi in 2015.

That year, Tan had won two silvers (singles, trios) and two bronzes (doubles, team). At the 2017 edition, also in Las Vegas, Tan had won a team silver.

Tan, who had also secured second-placed finishes this year at the AIK International Open and Greater Cleveland Open, said: "I’m really, really happy to finally win the gold! Especially since I've been coming in so close (2015, 2017 and 2019) and never really attained it.

"I felt that I bowled well the entire tournament and I fell short on singles and all-events. Coming up for this world champs, the main goal of the team was to win the team gold and we fell short of that as well. So this medal is not only for Singapore, it’s for the team."

Earlier in the week, Tan made the top-24 cut for the Masters after finishing fifth in the All Events standings with a 5,376 pinfall total, while Rodriguez topped the table with 5,488 pinfalls.

Tan went on to pip Indonesia's Tannya Roumimper 212-210, 198-233, 211-205 and Russia's Maria Koshel 247-210, 224-204 to reach the Masters semi-finals where she met Danielle McEwan, who had won the singles title earlier.

Tan lost 165-212 in the first game, but regained her composure to win 236-184, 244-213 to reach the final.

Said Tan: "Danielle is a really strong competitor and, going into the match, I knew I had to make good shots to be able to have a chance to beat her. I felt that she had some bad breaks and lost her ball reaction on the right lane, which allowed me to win."

In beating Rodriguez in the final, Tan also gained a measure of revenge for Bernice Lim, the only other Singaporean who had qualified for the Masters.

Lim, who placed 23rd in the All Events with 5,132 pinfalls, had lost 163-227, 225-202, 246-224 to the Colombian in the third round of the Masters finals.