16th January, Jakarta: Hong Kong's "Wonder Boy", Wu Siu Hong rallied on from a third frame mistake to overcome his opponent, Joonee Gatchalian of the Philippines to capture the ABF Tour Tournament of Champions men's crown while Wendy Chai defeated Esther Cheah in the all-Malaysian final for the women's crown.

The 20 year-old student from Hong Kong displayed superb fighting spirit to rally on for a well deserved win despite a single-pin miss in the third frame. Wu started off the final match against Filipino, Joonee Gatchalian with a double strike but soon found himself trailing by 22 pins in the fourth frame when his opponent had a turkey from the second to the fourth frames.

The mistake did not put the champion off his concentration as he brought home four-in-a-row from the sixth frame onwards to level off at the eighth frame. Wu went on to clinch the title with a score of 235 while Gatchalian could only manage 227.

"I was very nervous in the beginning of the match and made the mistake in the third frame," said the 21 year-old champion.. "After the sixth frame, my coach told me to make some adjustments and it paid off," added Wu. "I am now looking forward to the 2005 Tour starting with the Hong Kong Team's participation in Kuwait leg in March."

Wu had a similar third frame miss in the semifinal match against Malaysia's Adrian Ang but again demonstrated great fighting spirit to string together 8 stirkes-in-a-row to earn his place in the finals, 248-222. Malaysia's hope of a men in the finals were dashed when Alex Liew went down to the runner-up, Joonee Gatchalian in the other semifinal match, 223-246.

In the all-Malaysian women's final, young Esther Cheah almost stole the glory when she started off strongly with a turkey but an open frame in the fourth put her rythmn off and she were not able to come back thereafter. Her more experienced opponent, Wendy Chai displayed better composure to pip Cheah with an eventual score of 206-197.

"There was a lot of pressure in the final match but I told myself that I just have to bowl my game," exclaimed the 27-year-old champion. "Because I had some problem in the odd lane, I had to make some adjustment and it paid off," added Chai.

Cheah almost became the youngest-ever champion to emerge from Malaysia in a major tournament but she had to face a more experience

bowler. The 18-year-old settled for second despite knocking our Malaysia's top women bowler, Shalin Zulkifli, 234-175 in the second women semifinal match while the champion edged Sarah Yap, 195-183 in the other all-Malaysian match.

The champion Wu Siu Hong won the top prize of US$20,000 with Gatchalian settling for US$6,000 and the two loosing semifinalists, Adrian Ang and Alex Liew, US$2,500 each. Wendy Chai pocketed US$10,000 for her effort while Cheah took home US$4,000. Shalin and Sarah Yap won US$1,800 each as loosing semifinalists.

The four-day event was a great success and it concluded an ammazing tour organized by the Asian Bowling Federation. As a finale to the the 2004 Tour, Tyrone Ongpauco finished it off with a perfect game while Ryan Lalisang kicked off the Tour with a first-ever perfect game on Live TV in the first leg in Malaysia.

The 2005 Tour will kick off in Doha next month after the H.H. Emir Cup in Qatar and another West Asian leg in Kuwait in March before start in Malaysia end of March. There will altogether 8 stops before the 2005 Tournament of Champions back in Jakarta in January 2006.

The ABF Tour - Tournament of Champions was televised LIVE on Malaysia's Astro Supersport, Singapore's Starhub and Indonesia Metro TV. Highlights of the finals will also be televised later on local television stations of the six countries where the tour is being held. It will also be broadcast later in parts of Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, China and Australasia with an estimated audience of around 90 million.

For further information and details please contact ABF Tour Committee Marketing and Event Management Division at Tel: (852) 2810 5191; Fax: (852) 28105192; Mr. Ritchie Lai (Mobile: (852) 93598669; email: ritchie.lai@tndgroup.com) or Mr. Kelvin Pong (Mobile: (852) 9100 0958; email: Kelvin.pong@tndgroup.com).