Asian Games history was made on Monday as Malaysian bowler Rafiq Ismail won a gold medal in the men's masters event at the Jakabaring Bowling Centre in Palembang.

The 21-year-old became the first Malaysian male bowler to win any medal in the masters event, and only the second Malaysian to claim the gold medal after Shalin Zulkifli won the women's event in 2002 in Busan.

To make it sweeter, he beat defending champion Park Jong-woo of South Korea 534-511 in the final.



Another South Korean bowler, Koo Seong-hoi, took home bronze.

In the masters event, only the top three bowlers after the second block make the cut for the stepladder finals and qualify for medal finishes.

After starting slowly in the first block with 1889 points, Rafiq picked up the pace in the second block to improve his score to 4005 and take the top spot among 16 bowlers, qualifying for the gold medal match.



It was Malaysia's third overall gold medal after national bowlers Syaidatul Afifah Badrul Hamidi, Esther Cheah and Siti Safiyah Amirah Abdul Rahman bagged one in the women's trio event, followed by squash star Nicol David in the women's singles.