PETALING JAYA: Elite woman bowler Siti Shazwani Ahmad Suhaimi held her nerves to deliver a silver medal in women’s singles at the Commonwealth Tenpin Bowling Championship in Auckland, New Zealand, yesterday.

Isaac Russell Paul, however, had to settle for bronze with a total of 1,247 in the men’s singles behind winner Sam Cooley of Australia (1,444) and runner-up Jaris Goh of Singapore (1,328). But it was Siti Shazwani who shone for Malaysia, having knocked down a total of 1,188 pins to finish behind England’s Kirsten Penny, who scored 1,301.

It was a fantastic performance by Penny, who overcame a disastrous start in the first game where she only scored 147.

Siti Shazwani too struggled initially, especially during the second game where she only scored 169.

Although the 25-year-old from Johor recovered well, it wasn’t enough and she had to settle for the silver.

“It’s a pity I couldn’t win the gold but I’m quite relieved to have got through this ... I’m thankful for the silver,” said Siti Shazwani.

“I actually didn’t bowl that well and the lane gave me a bit of a problem.

“Hopefully, it’ll get better in the next event – the doubles.

“I didn’t really focus on checking my own scores. It wasn’t until the third game that I realised I was in contention for a medal.

“But I couldn’t make the most of it and, in the end, I just had to maintain my own game because there was no chance for gold at that point.”

It was, however, a disappointing outing for Dayang Khairuniza, who scored a lowly 1,069 to finish 14th.

The Sarawakian, who won a bronze in the doubles in the World Youth Championship last year, will need to raise her game in the doubles, which starts today.

In the men’s event, Isaac started strongly – scoring 237 in the first game to stay within touching distance of Cooley.

But poor lines of 182 and 189 in the second and sixth games respectively ended his hopes of finishing higher than third.

Sixteen-year-old Mohd Rafiq Ismail, who has been on fire this year, showed that he still has much to learn after scoring 1,167 to finish ninth.

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