Eight games to decide eight players

The top 24 men and women played a further eight games to determine who was to go through to the round robin.

The lead in the men’s section swapped between Ahmad Muaz of Malaysia and Oscar Rodriguez of Colombia, and these two were way out in front, but with one game to go, the other six places really were up for grabs. Third place was 61 over the cut while 10^th place was only 52 under the cut.

Mexico’s Arturo Estrada was in eighth place. But along came Ildemaro Ruiz of Venezuela who hit a 289 and moved up from ninth into fifth. It all depended on the others. Arturo hit 225 but Oliver Morig of Germany hit 197 and that, added to his running total, was enough to see Oliver go through by just three pins. How disappointing for Mexico!

Would Maribel Orozco fare better? She did, securing her place in the top eight with a 216 game.

Four players hit over 1800 for their eight games: Ildemaro 1873, Oscar 1823, Ahmad 1823 and Jenny Wegner, the long term leader in the women’s section.

So our top eight are:

Men                                                                                                      

Ahmad Muaz                     Malaysia              7156                                      

Oscar Rodriguez               Colombia             7075

Mats Maggi                        Belgium                6959

Jakob Butturff                   USA                       6948

Ildemaro Ruiz                     Venezuela          6933

Tor Inge Jansen                 Norway                6920

Ray Teece                           England                6910

Oliver Murig                       Germany             6905

Women

Jenny Wegner                   Sweden                7261

Rocio Restrepo                  Colombia             7031

Krizziah Tabera                  Philippines          6897

Siti Safiya                             Malaysia              6872

Vanessa Timter                 Germany             6855

Erin McCarthy                   USA                       6842

Rebecca Whiting               Australia              6837

Maribel Orozco                 Mexico                 6828

These eight will play a further eight games as a round robin with 30 bonus pins for a win, so it is still all to play for to reach the top four and tomorrow’s TV finals.

At this stage as well Colombia, the USA, Malaysia, and Germany are all in with a chance of winning the top country trophy.

Three players posted the best ever results for their countries: Dhruv Sarda of India who finished 14^th, beating his own record of 20th, Lluiz Montfort of Catalonia who finished 17^th, beating the previous best of 19^th, and Stephanie Martins of Brazil, who finished 14^th, just one place up on the previous best.

Photo credit: Hiroshi Noda

By Judy Howlett

Judy Howlett has represented England and Great Britain several times in her bowling career. She played in the Bowling World Cup twice, coming second in 1985 (Seoul, South Korea). She has been in part of the organising team since 2001.

"I can't believe I am lucky enough still to be involved in the best tournament in the world - the QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup."