KUALA LUMPUR: Natasha Roslan may have fallen short of retaining her IBF World Cup women's singles crown, but reaching a second consecutive final has given the Malaysian bowler plenty of positives to take into the team competition in Munich, Germany.
The 2025 champion, who made history by capturing gold in Hong Kong, settled for silver after going down 2-1 to France's Manon Clement in Sunday's final.
Clement took the opening game 231-190 before Natasha responded superbly to level the contest with a 206-147 victory.
However, the Frenchwoman prevailed 204-168 in the decider to deny Natasha back-to-back titles.
Despite falling at the final hurdle, Natasha was proud of her achievement, having followed up last year's historic triumph with another impressive run to the title match.
"So close yet so far to defend my title. Of course, I would have loved to win again, but I'm still happy, grateful, and proud to finish second," said Natasha.
"I gave it my best, and there's a lot I can take from this to keep improving."
Natasha's latest silver further underlined her consistency on the international stage, coming three years after she became Malaysia's first women's singles world champion in Kuwait in 2023.
Her road to the final began with convincing 2-0 victories over the Netherlands' Samantha Greiner (172-168, 189-168) and compatriot Sin Li Jane (258-178, 203-195).
She then had to dig deep in the quarter-finals against Denmark's Karen Kaergaard Nielsen, who had earlier eliminated two other Malaysians, Nur Hazirah Ramli and Adelia Nur Irwan Syazalee.
After dropping the opening game 201-191, Natasha recovered to win the next two (216-177, 196-180) and secure a place in the semi-finals.
She followed up with another assured display, defeating Sweden's Nora Johansson 211-157, 201-192 to book her place in the final.
The other Malaysian women also put up commendable performances, with Li Jane opening her knockout campaign with a convincing 2-0 victory over Denmark's Megan Dicay, winning 258-170, 218-168, before losing to Natasha in the last 16.
Adelia battled past the Philippines' Krizziah Lyn Macatula 2-1 in the last 32, but her challenge ended with a 2-0 defeat to Nielsen, who prevailed 212-207, 220-183.
Nur Hazirah also gave Nielsen a tough fight in the last 32 before going down 2-1. The Dane took the opening game 224-200, lost the second 213-171, but bounced back to clinch the decider 250-166.
With the singles competition concluded, Natasha will now shift her focus to the team event alongside Li Jane, Adelia and Nur Hazirah.
The quartet will be hoping to go one better than Malaysia's silver medal-winning women's team at last year's World Cup, when they suffered a narrow 3-2 defeat to the United States in the final.
"Next up is the team event, so the focus now is to reset and get ready with the girls," said Natasha, who remains determined to help Malaysia challenge for another medal.
"Still more to fight for," she added, as Malaysia look to challenge for another medal.
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