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Brothers Zapanta competing in Bangkok
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Posted on Jul 05 2004
Brothers Ruselle and Raymond Zapanta flew to Bangkok, Thailand last week to compete in the 18th Asian Tenpin Bowling Championships.
The tournament runs from July 2 to 14 at the P.S. Bowl in Bangkapi and will see 129 men and 76 ladies compete for medals in the singles, doubles, trios, five-person teams, and masters events.
Seventeen-year-old Ruselle said he’s a little bit nervous about playing in such a big tournament. But he said that like him, a number of bowlers participating in the Championship are also members of the youth teams of their respective countries.
Ruselle is an incoming freshman at the Northern Marianas College and graduated from Kagman High School last semester.
Raymond agrees with his older brother’s opinion. The 15-year-old incoming junior at KHS said they both would do everything in their power to bring glory back to their islands.
However, the two said it would be really difficult to make it to the masters event, let alone medal in the competition, but nonetheless said they welcome the challenge of facing the best young bowlers in Asia.
Raymond and Ruselle said they would be chaperoned by Guam’s youth bowling coach Joey Miranda during their entire stay in Bangkok.
The Championships kicked off in grand style last Saturday with no less than Thailand’s Minister of Tourism Sontoya Kungsleom welcoming the participants.
The opening also featured a parade of players, who marched against a backdrop of traditional Thai dancers, a host of local children, and a musical band.
Sixty-eight officials have joined the 205 participants in the Championships. The CNMI is one of 14 countries that didn’t send a full complement of six men and six women bowlers.
Syria has sent just one delegate, Iran two, Iraq five, Thailand, Hong Kong and Egypt have just four women each, Macau three, and Bahrain, Guam, Kazakhstan, Qatar, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates have not entered women’s teams in the competition.
Action started yesterday with the men’s and women’s singles long oil competition followed by the short oil singles event today.
