BOOSTED by the silver medal won by national team veteran Lara Posadas in the women’s singles event, the PH women’s squad placed fifth overall in the Asian Bowling Championships in Bangkok, Thailand and qualified for the IBF World Championships in November 2025 in Hong Kong.

Posadas had 1353 pinfalls and a 225.20 average on lines of 201, 217, 269, 236, 172 and 258 at the Blu-O Rhythm and Bowl Center, snapping a 22-year dry spell in the meet since Liza del Rosario bagged a pair of gold medals in the singles and all-events in the 2002 edition in Hong Kong, according to former Philippine Bowling Federation president and PSC commissioner Bong Coo, who was at the Bangkok competition.

“We congratulated Lara for breaking a long medal drought for the country in this elite tournament. This is a promising result for our bowlers,” Coo said.  

With Posadas teaming up with Alexis Sy, Dyan Coronacion and Danielle Lazo, the PH women’s squad had a total tally of 23369 and an average of 194.74 from the combined scores in the singles, doubles, trios and team events. 

South Korea emerged as the topnotcher (24889), followed by Malaysia (24690), Singapore (24111) and Japan (24061). respectively.

The Pinay keglers finished ahead of Chinese-Taipei (23001), China (22792), Macau (22686), Thailand (21087) and Kuwait (1185), rounding out the 10 qualifying countries from Asia in the competition scheduled Nov. 24 to Dec. 6 in the former British crown colony.

Also making it to the worlds was the PH men’s squad of Art Barrientos, Merwin Tan, Marc Dylan Custodio and Kenneth Chua, which finished eighth among the nine qualifiers with a grand tally of 24057.

Malaysia topped the qualifiers (26050), Singapore was second (25136) and South Korea third (24956).

Coo observed during the meet “that our bowlers are at par with the skill and talent of the rest in Asia but what they lack is consistency, which comes from constant repetition and practice if we had a training facility to train on.

“Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea have their own bowling centers but we presently don’t have one so that is our major handicap since the other bowling venues are full since the AMF Puyat Bowling Center in Mandaluyong was closed down.”

She expressed the hope that the PSC bowling center that will be built at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex would become the permanent bowling venue of the national team “but as of now we have to scramble where our bowlers need to train until that is finally built.”