Dubai: Kuwait's Jasem Abbas Darwish had to go into the deciding match to beat challenger Kim Bolleby of Sweden and win the Youth Under-23 Masters title of the 3rd Dubai International Open Bowling Tournament on Thursday night.
Jasem's decision to concentrate just on the youth division paid off after he captured the title to take home Dh25,000, but the 22-year-old had to work hard for the win.
His challenger and No 2 seed Bolleby had out-classed the winner of the first match, Perttu Jussila of Finland, 277-185 to face top seed Jasem. The 21-year-old left-hander was in superb form in taking the first game 266-247 to force a decider.
But Bolleby just could not repeat the form he displayed earlier, going down to the Kuwaiti 176-234 to settle for Dh13,000.
Jussila, who beat No 4 seed Samantha Hannan of England and No 5 seed Kevin Wattimena of Ireland 256-165-219 in the first match, took home Dh7,500 for finishing third.
In the earlier six-game semi-finals, the champion finished on top of the field of 10 finalists with 1,303, followed by Bolleby in second with 1,283 and Jussila third with 1,237. Hannan and Wattimena made the stepladder finals in fourth and fifth positions with 1,202 and 1,201 respectively.
Wattimena received Dh6,000 for fourth and Hannan Dh5,000 for fifth. Local hopeful Sultan MK Al Qubaisi missed the cut by two pins to finish sixth, while a second Kuwaiti, Aseel Al Roumi, finished seventh.
