GLASGOW, August 2 — The world’s number one lawn bowls player Emma Firyana Saroji suffered a disappointing day as she failed to qualify for the women’s singles final of the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games played at the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) here, tonight.
Emma Firyana lost 0-2 to Ali Merrien from Guernsey in the semi-finals, but still has a chance to bring home a medal as she is scheduled to meet Shae Wilson from Norfolk Island in tomorrow’s bronze medal playoff.
Commenting on her clash against Merrien, she admitted that she was rather slow in finding her rhythm in the first set and failed to adapt to her opponent’s short-game style.
“In the second set, I tried to bounce back, but made unforced errors in one end when my bowl fell short before pushing my opponent’s bowl, allowing her to gain four points. That shouldn’t have happened.
“I didn’t feel pressured because we knew we were already in the knockout stage. Perhaps the opponent played better than me today,” the 39-year-old player told Bernama.
For the record, Emma Firyana previously won gold in the women’s pairs at the 2018 Gold Coast edition and silver in the women’s fours event at the Glasgow 2014 edition.
Meanwhile, the men’s pairs duo of Amirul Danial Abdul Rahim-Mohammad Soufi Rusli also missed out on a spot in the final after losing to an English pair of Adam McKeown-Gary Kelly via a 0-1 tie-break, following a 1-1 tie.
In the para lawn bowls event, the women’s pairs B6-B8 duo of Norazian Daud-Jariah Zakaria lost to New Zealand’s Julie O’Connell-Teri Blackbourn in the semi-finals.
So far, the national lawn bowls squad has collected two silver medals at this edition, through the men’s singles and women’s pairs events respectively.
— BERNAMA
