The USA will again be sending their national amateur champions and as always they are sure to be among the favourites to take the title. Diandra Asbaty (nee Hyman) from Chicago will be determined to improve on her 9th place in 2000 when the event was held in Lisbon, Portugal. Now 26, she has won medals in many important international tournaments, including gold, silver and bronze in the FIQ World Championships in 2003. She also won the World Ranking Masters in 2004.

She will be joined by Dan Patterson who was delighted to qualify for Team USA for the first time. Dan hails from Seneca in New York.

Another player making a return to the tournament is Sven van Eyken of Belgium who last took part 14 years ago in Le Mans, France. Sven will be hoping to emulate and even improve on his brother Yves’ result in 2004, when he finished joint 5th. Belgium’s female representative will be Kirsten Horemans.

A popular returning player will be Shant Panos Tomassian from Iraq, making his 5th appearance at the event. Shant has made many friends over the years and we will look forward to seeing him again.

Italy will be sending Daniela Esposito and Vittorio Vaglia who will no doubt be hoping to add the QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup to Italy’s FIFA World Cup.

Theresa Depka of the Virgin Islands will be trying to make it third time lucky, having competed twice before, in 2003 and 2004 while Ahmad Abdelhakeen Almanasrah will be representing Jordan for the second time, having played in Singapore in 2004.

Both the players who represented Kazakhstan last year in Ljubljana, Slovenia, will be returning - Makhmut Lazaridi in the men’s section and Veronika Solozhenkina in the ladies. Veronika also competed in Singapore in 2004. Croatia will also have a returning player in the shaper of Krunolslav Struml who competed last year. He will be joined by Vesna Mandaric.

Ilkin Babayev from Azerbaijan will be another returner from last year while Elisabeth Relautte from the lovely island of Martinique will be back after a three year absence, having played in 2003 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

The names of the Cuban participants are yet to be confirmed.

Ends
The tournament will take place in the 40-lane centre in Mampote, just outside Caracas, from 4th to 10th November 2006. The centre, which was the venue for the 1983 FIQ Bowling World Championships, will be fully refurbished with the latest QubicaAMF equipment. It boasts magnificent facilities including excellent spectator viewing.

The event has the personal support of President Hugo Chavez and the Minister of Education and Sports, Prof. Aristobulo Isturiz. The Vice-Minister for Sport, Prof Eduardo Alvarez Camacho, who is also the President of the Venezuelan Olympic Committee and President of the National Institute of Sports, is heading up the organising committee.