Two silvers but there’s more than a sliver of hope left for lawn bowlers

PETALING JAYA: The national lawn bowls team remained in high spirits despite settling for second best in two finals at the Scottish Event Campus yesterday.

The women’s pair of Aleena Ahmad Nawawi-Syafiqa Haidar Afif Abdul Rahman delivered the first silver for Malaysia in Glasgow after they were beaten 0.5-1.5 by English duo Amy Pharaoh-Sian Honnor in the first final.

The Malaysian pairing had lost the first set 4-5.

A 5-5 draw in the second was enough for England to secure the first of four gold medals at stake in the competition.

Former world No. 1 and team captain Izzat Shameer Dzulkeple then staged a late rally but it was not enough to force a tie-breaker as he eventually lost the men’s singles final 0-2 to Sam Tolchard of England.

Izzat lost 0-8 and 6-8 to claim the second silver medal for Malaysia as Tolchard made it two out of two for England on the mat.

The 34-year-old Izzat had edged past two-time defending champion Aaron Wilson of Australia to reach his first Commonwealth Games final but just could not get his game flowing in the showdown.

The two silver medals, however, are an improvement from Malaysia’s previous campaign in Birmingham four years ago where thy came back with one silver and one bronze.

Birmingham even offered eight gold medals at that time but the triples and fours events have been excluded from the Glasgow programme.

With reigning World Cup champion Emma Firyana Saroji yet to see action in the women’s singles event and the men’s pairs about to start, the team are optimistic of more medals to come.

“We take each match at a time here. We know Australia, Scotland and England are the big powers in lawn bowls but we always try our best to beat them at their game,” said Aleena in the official Glasgow blog.