By Lim Say Heng

HE MAY be related to the bowling great, but Rod Nepomuceno does not possess the same skills in his lanes as his distant cousin, Rafael 'Paeng' Nepomuceno.

Paeng is a six-time bowling world champion, who holds a Guinness world record for winning four of his World Cup titles in three different decades.

The southpaw has also chalked up a career-high 118 bowling titles and been bestowed three state awards by three different Filipino presidents.

'He is a very distant cousin of mine, so I haven't spoken to him before,' said Rod.

'But people do ask me if we are related when they hear my surname because Paeng is like a national hero in my country.'

And sometimes having a famous surname can be quite unnerving as well.

'When I was working in a law firm in 1993 or 1994, we had an inter-law firm bowling league,' recalled Rod, who can post a score of 160 on a good day.

'I walked into the bowling alley with my surname on the back of my shirt and everyone thought that I would be just as good as my cousin.'

'And then when I was about to bowl, I accidentally slipped and fell on the lane,' he added, laughing.

Looks like bowling is one sport that our sporty boss needs a little bit more work on.