Bengaluru: Dhruv Sarda of Delhi and Tamil Nadu’s Sabeena Athica stayed true to form, retaining their crowns in the National tenpin bowling championships at the Blu O, here on Sunday.
Sabeena completed a hattrick of triumphs while bagging her eighth national crown. While Dhruv edged out Karnataka’s Akaash Ashok Kumar by 45 points, Sabeena prevailed over Judy Alban of Karnataka by 46 points to keep her crown intact.
In the men’s category, Dhruv and Akaash made a steady start in the first game with spares.
Akaash took a slender lead of four pins at the end of first game but had to contend with two open frames out of first seven.
Dhruv seized the initiative by bagging a turkey in the crucial 6th, 7th & 8th frames to shut out all escape routes for Akaash with a 414-369 verdict.
In the women’s category, third seed Judy kept pace with the champion in the first game by conceding only a 11-pin lead.
But a poor second game effort from Judy made it easy for the seven-time national champion to outplay her Karnataka rival with a 353-307 verdict to lay siege on the title for the eighth occasion.
Earlier, in the stepladder first match, third seed Akaash took on his fourth seed team-mate Girish Gaba before edging him 451-413.
While Dhruv ousted Shabbir Dhankot of Tamil Nadu by a wafer-thin four point margin at 349-345.
Scores: Men: Dhruv Sarda (Del) 414 (198, 216, avg 207) bt Akaash Ashok Kumar (Kar) 369 (194, 175, avg 184.5) Women: Sabeena Athica (TN) 353 (183, 170, avg 176.5) bt Judy Alban (Kar) 307 (172, 135, avg 165) Highest scorer in single game: Shabbir Dhankot; Sugandha Sharma Maximum scores above 200: Dhruv Sarda, Sabeena Athica Most promising player: Varun Ganapathy.
