Singaporean wins qualifying round
20th October, Shanghai: USBC Queens Masters champion, Bernice Lim of Singapore maintained a 125-pin lead in the fourth and final five-game block of the women’s division at the 52nd QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup to lead the top 24 players into the second stage.
Lim, who won the Queens in May, started fourth qualifying block with a low game of 163, but averaged almost 240 for the next four games (223, 247, 227 and 261) for the third-best 1121 series. The Singaporean national team member finished the qualifying at the top of the standings to lead the 63 women with 4470 total or an average of 223.50 for 20 games.
First-round leader Danielle McEwan of United States, a PWBA champion and current World Bowling Tour women’s points ranking leader, started her block with a huge 277 to end with the second-best 1161 series (232.20) to leap from sixth to second place with 4345.
Nadine Geissler of Germany averaged 217.40 for the day for the fourth-best 1087 series, but slipped one spot down to third place with 4300 (215.00).
Bernice Lim ending the qualifying rounds in the lead
Second-round leader Lisa John of England had a solid start with 219 and 192, then closed out with 225, 224 and 224 for 1084, the fifth-best series of the day, and 4279 total (213.95).
Jenny Wegner of Sweden, who led the European Bowling Tour women’s points ranking in the 2015 season, was the best bowler of B squad and tied John at 4279. Wegner was seeded fifth as John had the higher last game, 224 to 211, which broke the tie.
Two-time World Cup champion Aumi Guerra (winner in 2010 and 2011), of Dominican Republic, and two-time defending champion Clara Juliana Guerrero (2014, 2015) of Colombia still have a chance to become the first three-time women’s champion in the 52-year history of the World Cup.
Guerra sits in 14th place with 3904 (195.20) and Guerrero (left) is 16th with 3883 (194.15), 250 and 271 pins off the pace for eighth place (second cut). Zhang Yuhong from the host country, China is sandwiched between the two World Cup champions in 15th place with 3891 (194.55).
Sabeena Athica of India took the 24th and last place to survive the first cut with 3730 and an average of 186.50. The 39 bowlers in positions 25 to 63 were eliminated. The top 24 will resume on Friday for another eight games before the second cut to the top eight.
Split into A and B squad in each division, men and women, all competitors will bowl 20 qualifying games over four days before the field is cut to the top 24 for eight additional games. The 28-game pinfall totals will determine the 8 players who advance to eight games round-robin match-play (30 pins for each win, 15 for a tie).
The top 4 players with highest 36-game total including bonus pins will advance to the playoffs, which will be staged on a specially constructed two-lane arena in the Luwan Sports Complex which is also where Hao’s Bowling is located. This will be covered by live streaming on BowlTV and local Chinese live streaming through Ali Sports.
There will be a one-game knockout match with the No. 1 seed versus the No. 4 qualifier and No. 2 versus No. 3. The winners of each match will earn a spot in the championship game.
Detailed scores: Women’s Round 4 Qualifying | Men’s Round 4 Qualifying.
Photos courtesy of Hero Noda.