Hong Kong and Korea shared the final day glory as Michael Mak of Hong Kong beat team-mate Eric Tseng and Kim Hyun Mi of Korea beat team-mate Baek Seung Ja to win the Boy's and Girl's Masters gold medals.
Singles gold medalist and No. 2 seed, Shin Seung Hyeon of Korea was denied a chance to win his second gold medal when he was outclassed by No. 3 seed, Eric Tseng, 189-268 in the first stepladder match to settle for the bronze medal.
In the all-Hong Kong finals between top seed, Michael Mak and Tseng, the latter took the first match 227-224 for just a 3-pin advantage in the two-game total pinfalls encounter. But the overnight leader, Mak prevailed with a 434-429 victory over his challenger winning the second match, 210-202.
"I didn't have a good start in today's second block but managed to crawl my way back," said the 15-year-old wonder kid, Michael Mak
when interviewed. "After leading for so long and giving up the lead to Shin, I had to work extra hard to try and beat him in the position round to finish as top seed.
"I'm glad I did it and it was important to advance into the stepladder finals as top seed. I was very relaxed in the match against my team-mate although Eric is more experience than me. I just make sure I didn't make the same mistake as I did in the first match.
In the earlier 7-game round-robin matchplay finals, Shin had snatched the lead after becoming the sixth bowler to shoot a perfect game in the 15th match and for a 39 pin advantage over Mak. But in the position round match, Mak was more composed than the Korean to win 214-166 to take top spot.
Mak's victory gave Hong Kong their third gold of the competition which saw them emerging as overall boy's champion with a medal haul of 3-3-1.
Meanwhile, the stepladder finals of the Girl's division was an all-Korean affair. Top seed, Kim Hyun Mi took the gold medal after she beat challenger and No. 3 seed, Baek Seung Ja, 494-428 over two matches.
Baek, who thrashed team-mate and No. 2 seed, Lee Yeon Ji, 279-223 in the first match, settled for the silver medal while Lee gave Korea a clean sweep of the Girl's Masters event with the bronze medal.
"Since this is my last youth tournament, winning the gold medal is especially sweet," said the 22-year-old Kim Hyun Mi. "I'm also very happy to help my country to emerge as the overall champion."
Baek Seung Ja, Kim Hyun Mi and Lee Yeon Ji sweeping all three medals
"Although I had a good chance to win my second gold, Kim was simply too good today," said silver medalist, Baek Seung Ja, who finished fourth at last year's AMF World Cup in Malaysia. "We're just so happy to win all the three medals in this event."
Hong Kong's Milki Ng missed the cut for the stepladder finals by a distant 89 pins to finish fourth during the earlier second block Masters finals over the long oil pattern. Singapore emerged as overall girl's champion with 3 gold medals.
Korea ended a superb outing with a medal haul of 3-3-4 to emerge as the overall champion. Hong Kong went home with their best-ever Asian Youth championship with 3-3-1 while Singapore finished third. The only other gold medal was won by Malaysia in the Boy's Team event.
