AFTER 12 years of chasing the title, 23-year-old Tessa Dianne Galendez at last crowned herself champion of the 12th Datba Kadayawan National Bowling Tour Open held at the SM Lanang Premier Bowling Center in Davao City over the weekend.
Top qualifier Galendez, who works at Bank of the Philippine Islands along Quirino Avenue, survived past second shootout winner Jules Pedrajas, 235-228, in their championship match.
Galendez pocketed the P50,000 cash prize in the annual event organized by the Datba.
She said, "It has always been my dream to win the Kadayawan Open title since I started playing bowling. It felt very surreal now that I am declared as the champion."
She added that the practices and training she had with her father all these year paid off.
Galendez already has two SM Millionare's Cup national titles to her name and numerous Datba weekly and monthly championships won in the past prior to clinching the coveted Kadayawan trophy.
Of the 36 qualifiers, Datba Prima bet Galendez grabbed the top spot after hitting 1,800 pinfalls after eight games followed by Oly Centeno of Itba-Iloilo(1,777) in second, Pedrajas of Atba (1,711) third, Manuel Nierra II of Datba Prima (1,698) fourth, Datba- PSB's Al Langkuno (1,696 ) fifth, Tans Bernas (1,692) sixth, Romy Serrano (1,678) seventh and Manny Nierra (1,664) eighth.
No. 8 Manny garnered 219 pinfalls to rule the first shootout over No. 5 Langkuno (215), No. 6 Bernas (193) and No. 7 Serrano (191) to advance to the second shootout.
Pedrajas (221) then stamped rivals Centeno (217), Manuel (185) and Manny (210) in the second shootout to arrange a titular showdown with Galendez.
