ISLAMABAD - Rashid Khan of KP won the Amateur category title of 10th National Tenpin Bowling Championship after edging out Ali Chatha by six pins in the final played here in the wee hours of Saturday morning.
In Masters category, former two-time national champion Ijaz Khan hardly managed to book a place in the last 13 as young guns outshine far superior opponents.
It was highly tense battle witnessed in the Amateur category, as first-timer Rashid was causing huge upsets and winning lot of admiration during the course of action, while former national champion M Hussain Chatha’s son Ali Chatha was not in a mood to concede without a fight. It was 4-way battle in the first two games as the competition was very close and almost impossible to judge, who would be the ultimate champion.
Rashid took the slim lead after first round as he scored 120 pins, followed by Ali with 118, Shahbaz Saldera with 116 and Faheem with 114. In second round, Rashid extended his lead scoring 230 pins while Ali could manage 190, Shahbaz, 180 and Faheem 177 pins. But pressure of winning the title suddenly mounts on Rashid as he started to melt down but was lucky enough to finish the third game with total score of 335 pins. Ali was playing one of the best games of his life and in the last two attempts, Ali required two smashes to register one of the highly unlikely victories but he missed the trick and had to settle for second place with 329 pins. Shahbaz grabbed third place with 320 pins and Faheem finished 4th with 310 pins.
In Masters, last night leader Ali Surya was enjoying hefty lead over his far-superior opponents. It was the best of five-game last round before 13 players booked their places for the final showdown. Ali was leading with 1,154 pins. He was followed by Saleem Baig with total of 1082 pins. Hussain Chatha and youngster Sardar Ahmer Abbas Saldera grabbed joint third place with 1077 pins each. Sikandar Hayat, Saqib Shehzad, Aleem Agha, Ijaz Ur Rehman, Afzal Akhtar, Ashiq Ali, Shabbir Lashkarwala, Ali Shah and Zafar Iqbal also qualify for the final round.