Aussies in hunt at Singapore Classic

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Thaworn Wiratchant increased his lead to three shots atop the Singapore Classic leaderboard despite darkness cutting short the second round on Friday, while Australia's Scott Hend is still in the hunt at the Asian Tour event.

Hend was the best placed Australian before the weather interruption, with the Brisbane golfer sitting on five-under, six shots behind Wiratchant at the Orchid Country Club.

Australia's Darren Tan was also a big winner after winning a new car for sinking a hole-in-one on the par-three 11th hole.

"(It was) totally unexpected," Tan said after winning a Kia Optima K5. "The ball hit the flag and then it hit the bottom of the cup. It was a delayed reaction from me as I didn't know what I had done."

"But once it sunk in, it was a little celebration with the boys I was playing with."

Despite his heroics, Tan is well off the pace, tied for 53rd overall at one-under.

Other Australians in the mix included Kieran Pratt (four-under, tied 18th), Scott Barr and Unho Park (both three-under, tied 27th).

Wiratchant, of Thailand, was two under through five holes of his second round, to be three clear from Japan's Daisuke Kataoka.

Kataoka, outright second, carded a round of 67, as did Ron Harvey Jnr of Canada and Thai Chinnarat Phadungsil.

Kataoka said he was pleased to avoid the disruptions of the volatile Singaporean weather.

"You can never tell what's the weather going to be like here and I'm happy that I managed to complete my rounds and be among the leaders today," he said.

Spain's Javi Colomo and American Ben Fox shot 66s to be tied for third with Harvey Jnr, Phadungsil and American Jonathan Moore (68).

A group of five are tied for eighth, including South Africa's Anton Haig, Filipino Elmer Salvador, Taipei's Lu Wei-chih, China's Hu Mu and American David Lipsky - all on six-under, five shots behind Wiratchant.

Defending champion Himmat Rai of India is tied for 27th after carding 68 and 69 in his opening two rounds to be three under overall.

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