Bowling: Esther and Zandra fail to retain doubles crown

KUALA LUMPUR: The partnership of Malaysia’s Esther Cheah and Zandra Aziela Ibrahim Hakimi had been the envy of the world bowling fraternity. But in the World Youth Championships in Orlando on Monday, Esther and Zandra failed in their defence of the girls’ doubles title, crashing to a disappointing 21st spot with a low combined score of 2,421. The duo were in contention to finish among the top four after the first three games but Zandra then muffed up with her worst showing this season. Esther had lines of 179-257-235-254-189-194 but Zandra found the going tough and chalked up 187-204-198-146-192-186. The second Malaysian pair of Zatil Iman Abdul Ghani and Sharon Low fared even worse, finishing in 38th spot on 2,231 pins. Zatil, who won the singles bronze on Saturday, could not keep up with the momentum and scored 1,149... [read full story]