National women's fours clinch first lawn bowls gold

KUALA LUMPUR: The national women’s lawn bowls squad delivered the first gold medal in the sports at the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games at the National Lawn Bowls Centre in Bukit Kiara here.
The national women’s fours team comprising Norhashimah Ismail, Nur Ain Nabilah Tarmizi, Nur Fidrah Noh and Nurul Alyani Jamil defeated Philippines who fielded Marisa Baronda, Nancy Toyco, Nenita Tabiano and Sharon Hauters 24-14.
Playing on home ground, the national squad led in accumulating points but the Filipinos fought back at the 8th ends to take the score to 15-14 at 14th ends.
The national team under coach Syed Mohamad Syed Akil bounced back with an additional point at 15th ends to widen the score to 19-14 before completing the match with a 10-point margin.
National team manager Abd Hadi Rasip praised the team for showing great resilience to strong challenge by their opponents.
"Our game could be further improved and the players have not peaked,” he told reporters after the match.
This is the fifth gold by captain Nor Hashimah since taking part in the SEA Games in 1999.
Tomorrow, the final round of the men’s triples will start at 9am while the women’s triples will be held at 3pm at the same venue.
For the record, lawn bowls was last competed at the 2007 SEA Games in Korat in which Malaysia won four gold, one silver and one bronze which was also the best lawn bowls medal haul by the national contingent.
The Malaysian Lawn Bowls Association (PLBM) is targeting four gold medals from the men’s and women’s squads at KL2017. — Bernama