THE Philippines ended its campaign in the International Bowling Federation (IBF) Under-21 World Championships with a bronze medal coming from the men’s doubles team of Marc Dylan Custodio and Stephen Luke Diwa.

The Filipino pair absorbed a 1-2 setback from Ji Geun and Bae Junghun of Korea in their semifinal match at the Olympia Bowling Center in Helsingborg City.

Custodio and Diwa won the first game, 269-249, but Geun and Junghun swept the next two games, 269-205 and 241-225, to arrange a title showdown with Carl Eklund and Robin Ilhammar of Sweden.

Eklund and Ilhammar advanced to the championship round after posting a 2-0 (208-189, 259-189) win over Airel Amri and Megat Zaqrul of Malaysia, who settled for the bronze medal.

The Swedes eventually claimed the gold medal following a 2-0 (279-207, 278-258) win over their Korean rivals.

The Philippines made it to the group stage where it ended up in Group B with teams from Australia, Canada, Finland, Puerto Rico, the Netherlands and host Sweden.

After the single-round series, the Philippines, Sweden and the Netherlands registered identical 6-1 winloss records, thus requiring a playoff to decide the two teams going to the semifinal round. In the playoff, Sweden scored 256 pinfalls while the Philippines was second with 246, beating the Netherlands (235).

“I am happy with their performance. They still have a lot more room to grow and become world champions. We will be working on some things to improve their game and prepare them for the adult team,” said men’s coach Biboy Rivera.