Former national junior standout Grace Gella found her groove last Thursday night to wrest the lead in the local women's open division qualifiers of the Philippine International Open Tenpin Bowling Championships at the Coronado Lanes inside the Starmall in Mandaluyong.

A world junior championship bronze medalist in 2019, Gellla sizzled with scores of 654 and 695 in securing top spot with a tally of 1349, relegating erstwhile frontunner and former World Cup champ Krizziah Tabora-Macatula (1337) to second place.

Cebu-based national team mainstay Alexis Sy, who was in fifth place overnight, also made her move to secure the No. 3 spot after shooting 1313 (622-691) in the tournament organized by the Philippine Bowling Federation and sponsored by the Philippine Sports Commission.

Moving up in the standings is pivotal since the top three finishers in both the local and overseas categories of the women's open qualifying rounds of the kegfest also backed by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. will advance to the second round of the finals outright.

Singapore's Jazreel Tan, who scored the meet's first perfect 300 game the other day, clung to first place in the women's open overseas qualifiers with a score of 1417 while Malaysia's Nerosha Keligit (1319) and Charmain Chang of Singapore (1317) were in second and third place, respectively.

There was no change in the top three places in the local men's open qualifiers with Singapore-based national junior bowler Zach Ramin maintaining his grip of top spot (1413),  Ivan Malig (1406) second and Jordan Dinham (1401) third.

But rising three notches was MBA-Timberpro's Jolo Ramirez, who scored big with a 1386 (682-704) also the other day in wheeling into fourth place of the competition also supported by Timberpro, Robinson's Land, Cuisiners, Starbalm and The Bowler.

In the men's open foreign qualifiers, Singaporeans Darren Ong (1483) and Timothy Tam (1469)  remained  in the 1-2 spots but Malaysia's Rafiq Ismail's successful second outing in the six-game series vaulted him into third place with 1432 (672-760).

Compatriot Azriq Izamuddin made a promising debut in the tournament in scoring a similar 1432  (761-671) tally and lay in fourth place.