A sixteen-year-old boy who was born with no arms has developed incredible dexterity with his feet and astounded his cheering competitors and fans at the local lanes by bowling a perfect 300 game!
“It was one of those days when everything felt right,” says Malcome Tukofrau, of Kirtunu, Finland. “I knew by the fifth strike that I might go all the way.”
A perfect 300 game of bowling requires that the bowler roll twelve strikes in a row.
Tukofrau, who has been bowling since the age of six, uses a special ball that has one hole cut especially for the big toe of his right foot.
He hops up to the line on his left leg, twirls once, and lets it fly with his right foot.
“It’s remarkable to watch,” says Ekatsa Renstantz, owner of Kirtunu Lanes. “I’ve been watching this kid bowl all his life, and he’s always been good. But I never thought he would be this good.
“It’s just an example of what people can accomplish when they dedicate themselves to something. Malcome is out here everyday, practicing. I’ve seen him get discouraged before, but he never quits. He just keeps at it, and he gets a little better every year.
There was a time when people snickered behind the boy’s back at his unusual no-armed style, but they don’t anymore.
“He can beat the pants off anyone around here,” Renstantz says. “Including me.”
By the time Malcome got his sixth strike, people began to gather and watch his game progress. By the tenth strike, no one else in the bowling alley was bowling. They were all watching him go for it.
When he finally rolled the twelfth and final ball, there were over a hundred anxious bowlers gathering around his lane in disbelief.
“You could have heard a pin drop in here before he rolled that last strike,” says Renstantz. “You could almost hear Malcome concentrating.”
The entire bowling alley erupted in ear-shattering excitement when all the pins fell.
Renstantz was so overtaken with the boy’s marvelous accomplishment that he offered a free game and a beer on the house to everyone in the bowling alley.
“It was total celebration,” he says.
Malcome feels that he is no more handicapped than anyone else.
“Everybody compensates for something,” says the tenth grade bowling ace. “There’s no sense in being sad about what you don’t have. I’ve never had arms, so I don’t miss them. If you offered me a pair, I wouldn’t want them.
“People are always worrying about what they don’t have,” says the thoughtful young man. “What I’m concerned with is doing the most with what I do have.”
Malcome says he has the skill to become a professional bowler, but it’s not the life he wants. He hopes to someday make his living as a singer.
“I like to bowl for fun. It’s competitive, and it’s relaxing. It’s something I do well. And it’s also an outlet that I put everything I’ve got into it.
“But I wouldn’t want to do it for a living. That would take the fun out of it.
“Singing is my first love. I’ve always loved music, and I have a need, deep inside myself, to entertain people. That’s what my career is going to be about.”