National lawn bowlers Abd Rahman Hj Omar (L) and Hjh Amalia Hj Metali posing for a photo yesterday. BT/Syarif Rasani
National lawn bowler Abd Rahman Hj Omar admitted he was upset with his four close tie-break losses at the World Indoor Singles Championship in Australia.
Abd Rahman represented the country alongside Hjh Amalia Hj Metali at the April 8-16 meet, with both of them finishing second last in their respective groups - Abd Rahman was ninth while Hjh Amalia was 11th.
However, Abd Rahman - who won two games - felt he could have made it through from the group stage had he won his four tie-breaks.
He lost all four games that went into tie-breaks against the Netherland's Andy Docter (5-12, 9-4, 3-4), South Africa's Bobby Donnelly (8-6, 6-12, 3-4), Ireland's Neil Booth (6-10, 7-6, 1-3) and Fiji's Samuela Tuikiligana (12-2, 3-11, 1-2).
"If I won all of the tie-breaks, maybe I could have competed in the second round because most of the players lost their last matches," said Abd Rahman yesterday.
"I could have made it through to the next round by shot difference, maybe.
"The tournament is actually the best we've competed in because most of the players came from the lawn bowl countries.
"They are different from us. As you see in Brunei we only play amongst ourselves. And even when we go to other places we sometimes play team (events) and not single."
Abd Rahman shared that after playing against Malaysia's Fairul Abd Muin, his opponent's coach confessed that he thought Abd Rahman was the winner through his own assessment.
Abd Rahman lost the match 7-9, 5-10 to Fairul.
"I got 64 per cent and the Malaysian player only got 36 per cent in the match," said Abd Rahman.
"But he was very lucky because he kept on attacking. In lawn bowls, when you ask an experienced player, if you play well but you don't have the luck then you will never win," added Abd Rahman.
Hjh Amalia, meanwhile, said it took her a while to get warmed up.
Hjh Amalia won three games at the world meet, no easy task considering her pool included World No 1 and defending champion Jo Edwards from New Zealand, World No 2 Karen Murphy from Australia and eventual champion Caroline Brown from Scotland.
Both Edwards and Murphy also did not qualify for the finals from this section.
"I only got used to the greens and the crowd after my fourth match," said Hjh Amalia.
"Against Edwards, it was really. You know. I had the goose bumps and at the time I wasn't confident yet. I nearly beat Murphy but lost because I am not as experienced," she added.
Murphy won 8-4, 14-7 while Edwards beat Hjh Amalia 12-4, 9-4.
