KUCHING: National bowler Nerosha Keligit Thiagarajan gave the Sarawak bowling contingent a good start in the 45th Malaysian National and 34th Interstate Championships yesterday at Sunway Megalanes by delivering the team’s first medal.

Nerosha felled 1,237 pins to bag the silver medal in the women’s singles of the Interstate Championships, finishing 77 pins behind the gold medalist and former national youth bowler Faten Najhah Ahmad Fakrul of Pahang.

Former national bowler Datuk Shalin Zulkifli, who represented Selangor, took the bronze medal with her score of 1,232 pins.

Other Sarawakians in the 60player field included national bowler Gillian Lim Siew Giok who finished in 16th spot with 1,080 pins, national youth Nur

Hazirah Ramli in 27th position with 1,029 pins while state bowler Nur Aina Kamalia Abdul Ayub was 31st with 1,012 pins.

“I am very happy for the silver as it will start the ball rolling for Team Sarawak. I am hoping they can capture more medals in the next events,” said Sarawak team manager Shaifulbahri Shukri, who is Amateur Tenpin Bowling Association of Sarawak deputy president.

“The women’s singles was played on a short oil pattern and it was very tough for all the bowlers and even the national bowlers found it hard to manage good scores,” he noted.

Also on Team Sarawak are Lavinia Kho Jia Jie, Dayang Yumi Azreen Abang Azman, Andrea Tan Tze Shuen, and Caludia Kumang Jackson (girls), as well as Tsen Fan Yew, Ethan Damien Goh Chen Ming, Muhammad Ihsan Fikri Suffin, and Eldred Kho Yek Zhen (boys) in the youth category.

The men’s team members are Abang Afiq Yazid Abang Azman, Cornelius Aldheim Sajat, Chong Jun Foo, and Musayyar Khalid.

Accompanying the team are Abas vice president Robert Lu Nam Min and head coach Jackson Ting, who is assisted by Angelo Koay, Daniel Tan Yan Han, and Bong Kihow.

The 34th Interstate Championships runs from Oct 25-27, while the 45th Malaysian National is held from Oct 23 to Nov 3.