The national lawn bowl players in a group photo. - BDNLBA
BRUNEI Darussalam national lawn bowl athlete Dayangku Nurul Nabilah binti Pengiran Haji Mohd Salleh Chuchu stunned reigning Commonwealth Games women’s triples gold medallist England’s Sophie Tolchard in a 21-16 victory in the women’s singles of the World Bowls Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand yesterday.
The national lawn bowler will be gunning for the three automatic spots to make the cut in the playoffs and currently placed fourth in the standings only trailing third spot by an inferior point differential of one.
Dayangku Nurul Nabilah began the first round with a 21-13 victory over Colleen Piketh of South Africa before slipping to a 21-17 loss over World Cup champion Norfolk Island’s Carmen Anderson.
The 27-year old were not without its challenges having had to battle very windy conditions as well as cold weather.
Meanwhile, the men’s triples also gave themselves every chance of qualifying into the playoffs after notching two victories and a loss and placed fifth in the Section 2 standings.
The men’s trio of Naim Brahim, Ali Bujang and Rahman Omar made a fine start to the championship with an opening 22-11 win over Zimbabwe’s Terry Bowes, Tom Craven and Denis Streak.
The Brunei trio tasted their first defeat in a 9-21 loss to Scotland’s men’s triples team of Ronnie Duncan, Iain McLean and Darren Burnett before bouncing back with an 18-14 win over South Africa’s trio of Thinus Oelofse, Pierre Breitenbach and Rudi Jacobs.
With five countries all tied with six points still fighting for the final qualifying berth, fifth-placed Brunei need to beat the trio of Spain, Norfolk Island and NIU to stand any chance of moving into the next round.
Brunei’s national male lawn bowl athlete Rahman Omar indicated that most countries will fancy their chances of winning matches because of strong wind conditions.
“The opportunities still hangs in the balance because of the strong wind conditions. All countries who are competing here still have opportunities to win any of the matches,” said Rahman.
Brunei are represented by eight players and a manager appointed by the Brunei Darussalam National Lawn Bowls Association (BDNLBA).
