Singapore bowlers makes Top 24

17th November, Las Vegas: Overnight leader, Muhammad Jaris Goh and Geraldine Ng of Singapore, both made the Top 24 cut of the 51st QubicaAMF World Bowling Cup at the end of the third block of 8 games on Tuesday.

Muhammad Jaris made the cut depite rolling his lowest 8-game block on 1600. His 24 games total of 5201 put him fourth in the standings. Francois Louw of South Africa took over the lead on 5351 with Kamron Doyle of the USA in second on 5256 Wu Siu Hong of Hong Kong in third on 5128.

Francois hit 1895 over his eight games – the only man over 1800. The harder lane conditions meant only four men hit over 1700: Kamron (1715), Wu (1736), Muhammad (1735) and Tomoyuki Sasaki of Japan (1714). The high game for the day came from Oron Cohen of Israel with 278.

Dmitri Chilkine of Belarus and Patrick Meka of the Netherlands dropped out of the top 24, allowing Muhammad Rafiq Ismail of Malaysia and Benjamin Martinez of Mexico in to the next round. Mike Bartaire of France dropped down but still finished in 24th place, just making it to the next round.

The cut for the top 24 was 4880, a 203.33 average and the overall average for all 86 men was 193.19. The top 24 will come back tomorrow morning for a further eight games before the all-important cut to the top eight for the round robin. At present, that cut is a 212.79 average.

In the women’s division, Geraldine Ng, who did well in her opening block to finish third, slipped badly down to 12th position after the second block of 8 games. But she redeemed herself with a superb effort to roll 1740 in the third block to finish sixth with 5025.

Clara Guerrero, our defending champion has moved up to the top of the leader board on 5177, a 215.71 average, ahead of Sandra Gongora of Mexico on 5158 and Shannon Pluhowsky of the USA in third on 5134.

Catherine Durieux of Belgium had a few anxious moments but jumped with joy when she saw her name go up in 24th place, hence making the cut for the top 24. She went into the last game also in 24th place and bowled a clean game, including sparing two baby splits, to finish with a 204 game.

The unlucky player to finish in 25th was Narelle Baker of Australia. The cut for the top 24 was a 194.46 average. High game for the afternoon was 259 by Maria Bulanova of Russia. High sets were 1741 by Clara, 1740 by Geraldine Ng and 1738 by Maria with a further nine players hitting over 1600.

The top 24 women will now play a further eight games tomorrow morning before the cut for the top eight and the round robin. Sanna Pasanen of Finland is currently in eighth place on a 208.04 average.

Detailed scores: Men’s Qualifying Rounds | Women’s Qualifying Rounds | Photo Album.
Photos courtesy of Hero Noda, QubicaAMF.