National junior bowler Zach Ramin and former World Cup champion Krizziah Tabora-Macatula took the early lead in the men's and women's open divisions qualifying round, respectively, of the Philippine International Open Tenpin Bowling Championships last Monday.

A member of the national squad that saw action in the Asian junior bowling kegfest held in Bangkok, Thailand last August, Ramin totaled a six-game series of 1413 (783-630) while Macatula, the 2017 World Cup women's champ, tallied 1276 (622-654) at the Coronado Lanes inside the Starmall in Mandaluyong.

Ramin was seven pins ahead of second running national team veteran Ivan Malig (1407) while fellow national teammate Patrick Nuqui was in third spot (1375) in the tournament organized by the Philippine Bowling Federation.

Defending men's open champion Merwin Tan had problems finding his line and scored a six-series total of 1344 (682-662) in the kegfest supported by the Philippine Sports Commission and Senators Bong Go and Sonny Angara.

Tan was expected to bounce back in the remaining qualifying rounds of the championships.

On the distaff side, Macatula held a slim two-pin lead over No. 2 Grace Gella (1274) and 10 pins ahead No. 3 Rachelle Leon (1266) in foreign-laced championships.

Among the early birds to arrive from overseas over the weekend was the 23-man Singaporean squad, with Darren Ong (1303), Joel Tan (1283) and Daniel Zheng Yi (1261) taking the top three spots in qualifying stage of the men's open foreign bracket.

Fellow Singaporeans Jazreel Tan (1320) and Charmaine Chang (1251) running first and second, respectively, in the qualifying women's open foreign class.

But these standings are expected to change as entries from Thailand, Malaysia, Guam, Australia and Ireland start swinging into action once they arrive over the next few days.

In the men's graded class, the top three early qualifiers were PTBA's Francis Jose (1200), DATBI's Matt Barredo (1191) and teammate John Katon (1162), respectively.

PBAP's Apple Posadas (1103) led the way in the women's graded class with DATBI's Mariel de la Cruz (1051) and TBAM's Abbie Gan (1045) in second and third spots, respectively.