20-year-old Eric Tseng and 25-year-old Cyrus Cheung stunned the favorites when they claimed the first gold medal for the host country Hong Kong in the Men's doubles event at the 20th Asian Championships Sunday evening at Hong Kong Bowling City.

The underdogs, coached by USBC silver level coach Pedro Merani from Argentina, former PBA champion Purvis Granger, United States, and silver level coach and equipment expert Art McKee, Canada, overtook the lead in game 4 and pulled away with a huge 515 in game 5.

The Asian Doubles champions with their coaches: L-R Art McKee, Cyrus Cheung, Pedro Merani, Eric Tsang and Purvis Granger. Click on the image to enlarge it.

While the other contenders could only hope that the youngsters would show nerves, Tseng and Cheung sealed the victory with a 462 game, a little over their team average of 229.17, for 2750 pinfall total.

Qatar standouts Bandar Al Shafi and Mubarak Al Muraikhi took the silver medal with 2653 (221.08), 97 pins behind the leaders. Japan's Masaru Ito and Masaaki Takemoto also cracked the 2600-bar to earn the bronze medal with 2607 and an average of 217.25.

As in the Singles event yesterday, Squad 1 leaders Hussain Nasir Al-Suwaidi and Sayed Ibrahim Al-Hashemi, left the center empty-handed. The UAE bowlers finished fourth with 2579 (214.92), 28 pins off the medals.

The men's field will return on Monday for the first block of the Trios event on the long oil pattern.

Hussain Al-Suwaidi and Sayed Ibrahim felled 2579 pins over six games en route to take the lead in the men's Doubles event after Squad 1 of 2 in the 20th Asian Tenpin Bowling Championships Sunday afternoon at Hong Kong Bowling City.

The Arabs averaged 214.92 and had six games between 452 and 418 to lead Hong Hae-Sol and Choi Yong-Kyu from Korea by 31 pins. The Koreans finished with a 446 game to secure the second place with 1289 pins (212.33).

Kuwait's Basel Al-Anzi and Jasim Abbas and Tyrone Ongpauco and Raoul Miranda from the Philippines battled it out for the third place. In an exciting finish, Al-Anti (259) and Abbas (505) posted the highest game of the squad with 504. to beat out the Filipinos, who finished with a 491-game, by just one pin, 2542 to 2541.

The feat came at the expense of Nayef Eqab Al-Abadla and Shaker Ali Al-Hassan, who were second after five games, but fell to fifth behind a 406 final game with 2517 pinfall total.

Singapore's Lionel Lim and Basil Low, who lead the squad after three games with 1316, ended up in sixth position with 2505.

After the lane maintenance performed by Kegel lane man John Janawicz (pictured left), a two-time USBC Open Champion and Team USA member, the players from Squad will target to beat the scores set by the top 3 duos from UAE, Korea and Kuwait.

Considering that the top two women's duos from Malaysia and Korea outscored Hussain Al-Suwaidi and Sayed Ibrahim by 120 and 22 pins, respectively, this morning, it is questionable that the spectators here at Hong Kong Bowling City have already seen the 2008 Asian Doubles champion.


Squad 1 Results

Korean men target for another gold medal in Doubles