Singapore bowlers turn tide to win Asiad silver, still hunting for gold

Asian Games - Asian Games Incheon 2014 - Team Singapore - Incheon, Korea - 27/9/14 Bowling - Singapore's New Hui ...

REPORTING FROM INCHEON, SOUTH KOREA

Singapore's bowlers are back.

Federation head Jessie Phua is convinced her charges have finally found their form at the Asian Games, after the women fought to a silver medal in the trios event on Sunday afternoon.

Earlier this week, t hey had failed to win anything in the doubles, leading to an emergency pep talk by Phua immediately after the event.

And her words appear to have fired up Cherie Tan, New Hui Fen and Jazreel Tan as they scored 3,753 pinfalls to grab Singapore's fourth silver of the Asiad.

South Korea took gold and bronze, with Lee Nayoung, Jung Dawun and Son Yunhee on top with 3,896 pinfalls while Lee Yeongseung, Jeon Eunhee and Kim Jinsun registered 3,692 pinfalls.

' I'm glad the girls stepped up,' said Phua, who is also Singapore's chef de mission at the Games. 'I really hope this will be the turn we need... definitely you should be seeing better, stronger performances from them.'

Jazreel told reporters how their meeting with Phua had helped. 'We took it as an extra boost, and it gave us the extra energy and determination we really needed to push on for this event,' said the 25-year-old, who also won silver in the singles on Wednesday.

'Knocking on the door'

Still, the team didn't look too excited with their second-place finish. 'We are not going to be satisfied with just this,' Jazreel explained. 'It's another gold medal we missed out on.'

Singapore won gold in the women's trio at the last Asian Games held in 2010 in Guangzhou, China. It was a point not lost on national coach Remy Ong, who expressed similar dissatisfaction with today's result.

'We're still hunting for that medal and we're close,' he said. 'Something is still lacking for that colour we're looking for... but we're going to keep knocking on the door and I believe it will come.'

Jazreel, for one, is hoping it will arrive in the team event on Monday. 'That's the event we really want (to win),' she said. 'And I trust that we're going to fight even harder than we did the last few days.'

Asked how they planned to deal with the challenge posed by hosts South Korea and their boisterous fans, she added: 'They are favourites and their home support is tremendous, but it's not going to knock us down.'

'We'll take it as noise and focus on our own game,' Jazreel asserted. 'The energy we have between us will be enough to overcome the support the Koreans have.'

SEE ALL OF SINGAPORE'S MEDALISTS AT THE 2014 ASIAN GAMES: