The Hong Kong youngsters saw the massive gap between themselves and bowlers from other parts of the world after again returning empty-handed at the World Junior Championships.
The event is an annual outdoor championships that features men’s and women’s singles and mixed pairs events. Hosted at Broadbeach Bowls Club in Queensland, Australia from April 9-15, it is open to young bowlers at the age of 18 to 24.
Hong Kong was represented by a junior squad of Jason Choi, Arthur Lam, Amy Choi and Vivian Yip, who all have experience with the competition in the past two years.
Yip, the youngest winner of the National Indoor Singles and Champion of Champions Singles in Hong Kong, demonstrated the best performance for Hong Kong in the singles.
She won seven of the nine games in the round robin stage, only lost to the eventual group leader Syafiqa Rahman from Malaysia and Australian Jamie-Lee Worsnop. While she finished level on points with Ellen Ryan from Australia, her shot difference was 12 less and narrowly missed out on the play-offs.
Amy Choi, who lost all singles matches last year at the same competition, did improve this year. She won four and lost four of the games she played and finished a respectable fifth in the group.
The competition in the boys section seemed much more intense as Arthur Lam became the only player to lose all the singles games being played. Jason Choi fared better, winning two of the games and finished eighth in a group of 10.
In the mixed pairs both teams performed better. Arthur Lam partnered with Amy Choi to win four games and finished fourth of the group while Vivian Yip and Jason Choi drew two games and won three games to finished sixth.
Rita Shek, National Coach who lead the team at the tournament, hoped that the youngsters can learn from the experience, “Their opponents are very strong in terms of bowling technique, attitude, mentality and physicality. We do not expect our players to win every time but would like to see them learn from each game. They need to admit that some of the others are better than them and not to find excuses for every loss. There is still a long way to go for our youth development program” she explained.
All winners of the World Junior Championships are from Australia. Ellen Ryan won the women’s singles and then partnered with Aaron Teys to crown the mixed pairs. The men’s singles was won by Aaron Wilson.
This week in Lawn Bowls
On Sunday April 24 the National Fours competitions continue at all venues in Hong Kong with Round 3 for the women at 10am and Round 4 for the men at 3pm.
Claudius Lam is an officer of the Hong Kong Lawn Bowls Association.
