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Sports

Saturday March 6, 2010

Recuperating Shalin hopes to get back on right lane at Euro Challenge

By SHAMSHUL FITRI

PETALING JAYA: Shalin Zulkifli, the iron lady of Malaysian bowling, will be using the Brunswick Euro Challenge which started yesterday until March 14 in Paris to sharpen her game after a five-week injury layoff.

The 31-year-old injured her right foot in January and only came back to competitive bowling last month at the Bayer Don and Paula Carter tournament, a Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour meet, in Colorado.

She finished in 24th place with 2,807 total pinfalls and failed to qualify for next season’s Tour.

However, Shalin said her result was decent since she just came back from a foot injury that prevented her from doing any training.

“In my 20 years of bowling, it was the first time I suffered from an injury and it was the most boring five weeks in my life. I couldn’t walk much, let alone train because of the nature of the injury and it was really frustrating,” said Shalin.

“My game now is not as sharp as before and hopefully with the strong field in Paris, I will get my game back on track.”

A total of 10 national elite bowlers will leave for Paris on Monday for their first ever foray in the gold status European Bowling Tour competition since its inception in 2004.

The bowlers are Aaron Kong, Zulmazran Zulkifli, Adrian Ang, Muhd Nur Aiman Khairuddin, Mohd Syafiq Ridhwan Abdul Malek (men); and Shalin, Wendy Chai, Zandra Aziela Ibrahim Hakimi, Sharon Koh and Siti Safiyah Amirah Abdul Rahman.

“I’m raring for the French assignment as I’m fit again to bowl, even though I can’t put too much pressure on the foot,” said Shalin.

“We hardly get to compete in Europe and I’m going to treasure this opportunity even more if I can do well in the tournament.”

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