RIYADH, 9 April 2004 — Veteran Abdullah Amoudi led a Saudi sweep of the top three places in the final last Friday of the Qatar Airways Open Bowling Tournament at the Riyadh Bowling Club lanes here.

Amoudi was the only one left standing at the end of the marathon battle over eight games among the 20 finalists who had made the cut in the semifinals played a day earlier. Grabbing the lead for good after the fourth game, Amoudi shot total pinfalls of 1,840, well in front of fellow Saudis Muhammad ibn Sultan and Rashid Al Faraj who tallied 1,747 and 1,722 respectively.

Amoudi took home the winner’s purse of SR10,000 plus the champion trophy. Sultan got the first runner-up prize of SR6,000 plus trophy and Al Faraj the second runner-up prize of SR4,000 plus trophy.

The last three of 10 opens organized by RBC Bowling Manager Rommel Romano were won by Saudis and the first seven by Filipinos. This time though Filipinos were put in the shade by the remarkable Saudis who punctuated their hot display when Yasser Aburaish and Hassan Al Anazi, shot perfect 300 games during the qualifying period last March 19 and March 30 respectively.

Filipinos Fernie Ballano and Jim Lasaca rounded out the top five winners at 1,697 and 1,690 in the multiple entry tournament sponsored by Qatar Airways Central Province which donated two return air tickets (Riyadh-Manila-Riyadh and Riyadh-Cebu-Riyadh) through district sales manager Majeed Maarij.

Qatar Airways was represented by Sayed Darwish and Rommel Mendez at the awarding ceremony where they presented prizes to the winners. The FOBR-organized tournament qualifying to pick top 12 each from Division I (O and A + five handicap) Division II (+ 10), Division III (+15) and Division IV (+20) lasted for a little more than a month. The 32 qualifiers in the semifinals bowled eight games to determine the 20 who will move on to the final.

Among those who participated in the qualifying were more than 80 FOBR members and eight from the Saudi Bowling Federation. Nestor FOBR is chaired by Shakur Kamlian. The directors are Egai Asuncion (external affairs), Rod Tagaban (internal affairs male), Ellen Bernabe (internal affairs female), Rommel Romano (technical affairs male), Rizal Dellosa (membership male), Prima Abulencia (membership female), Jimmy Ocampo (finance) and Alma Lee, secretary.The ongoing leagues at RBC took a breather to give way to the final week of the 2004 season’s first major event.