For an athlete who has catapulted from an unknown to a well known local sports figure, Jasmine Yeong-Nathan is refreshingly unfazed by her sudden fame.

In fact, Singapore's first Bowling World Cup winner feels that with her success comes the responsibility of repaying the Singapore bowling community.
 
That is why the 20-year-old is looking forward to next year's Asian Youth Games in Singapore, even though she is ineligible for the competition.

She explained: "I want to help our youth bowlers to do well, so even though I can't participate, I'm keen to provide any kind of assistance or advice to our bowlers."

Significant moment of 2008:
The World Cup win was memorable, but I think that July's World Youth Championships was more significant, in that I learnt a lot about representing the national team and interacting with my teammates. You need to try different ways to motivate one another.

What would you have done differently to make 2008 a bigger success?
Well, the loss at the World Youth Championships step-ladder round could have been avoided if my focus was better. I had a good chance at the title, as I qualified third-best, but I lost narrowly.

Significant event next year:
I’m really hoping that I can help out at the Asian Youth Games. If not, there is also the Asian Bowling Championships in August to look forward to. Unfortunately, there will be no bowling competition at the Laos SEA Games.

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