Emilia “Emz” Salvador had little reason to expect a podium finish when she stepped onto the lanes for the final game of the Mixed Classified Masters at the 18th Datba-Kadayawan Open Championships recently.
She was sitting 13th.
Eight games later, the 42-year-old bowler from Narra Park in Tigatto, Davao City, had climbed all the way to second.
Salvador saved her best for last, rolling a tournament-high 218 in the eighth and final game to finish with 1,468 points — just three behind champion Summer Capital Tenpin Bowling Association’s (SCTBA’s) Santos Walang’s 1,471 at the SM Lanang Bowling Center on Aug. 15.
“Unexpected actually, Ma’am. Kasi before the last game, I was at No. 13 (It was actually unexpected. Before the last game, I was in 13th place), ” Salvador said.
Salvador began playing with the Davao Tenpin Bowling Association in January 2023. She got her own bowling ball five months later, in June, marking what she considers the start of a more serious pursuit of the sport.
Her late charge showed how much she has progressed in just a few years.
She opened the eight-game series with 143 and 166 before settling into a steady rhythm. She added 134, 170, 146, 138 and 193, then delivered her biggest game when it mattered most — a 218 that catapulted her from 13th to second.
“At first, Ma’am, pagsugod sa last game, walay kulba kay wala man ko sa top 10,” Salvador said. “Pero tungod in the middle of the game, nagataas akong score, didto na ko nakulbaan kay ang audience were saying nga kaya pa nako mag-top
(At first, when I started the last game, I wasn’t nervous because I wasn’t in the top 10. But when my score started getting higher in the middle of the game, that’s when I became nervous because the audience was saying I could still make the top,” she told VoxPop Davao in an interview Thursday, August 27, 2026.
The encouragement from spectators gave Salvador another push as she realized a major climb was within reach.
“Gi-dula lang gyud nako akong best even though last game na to (I just played my best even though it was already the last game),” she said. “Luckily, nisulod akong mga tira, got a high game, kaya nakasaka ko to second after the last game (Luckily, my shots were going in and I got a high game, so I was able to move up to second after the last game).”
Salvador’s 218 proved decisive. She finished with 1,308 scratch points and 160 handicap points for 1,468, edging past the rest of the field and finishing only three points behind Walang.
Merwin Henson placed third with 1,441.
For a bowler who only joined Datba in 2023 and acquired her own ball later that year, the runner-up finish marked a breakthrough — and a reminder that the standings can change dramatically until the final frame. PR
