19th November, Las Vegas: Second-seed, Wu Siu Hong made history by becoming the first Hong Kong bowler to win the Men's title of the 51st QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup on Thursday after defeating top-seed, Francois Louw of South Africa, 233-219 and 223-180.
After some amazing bowling in the Top 8 semi-finals which saw Louw topping the standings with 9015 pinfalls from six wins, 61 pins ahead of Wu in second with 8954 from four wins. Muhammad Jaris Goh of Singapore made the stepladder in third with 8777.
Wu was up against Muhammad Jaris in the semi-final. Muhammad Jaris had an open frame and never caught it back in the first game losing 173-189. Hong then started the second game with a turkey and never looked back, winning by two games to zero, 223-194.
Wu Siu Hong with his champion's trophy
The Hong Kong national opened the first two frames but started striking in the fifth frame, including a really lucky strike in ninth, to win the first game 233-219. A big split in frame three really hurt Francois, while Wu stayed clean, running out the winner by 223-180.
"At the beginning I was bowling too fast and those two open frames meant a bad start," said Wu after the match. "Then I changed my ball and found my form, just taking it shot by shot.
"I feel fantastic. This is the fourth time I have played in the World Cup and my best position was ninth, so I finally feel I've done it. It fills me with confidence and it shows Hong Kong people can do it. Now I just want to come back next year!"
In the women's semi-final match, second-seed Shannon Pluhowsky of the USA started very strongly and Russian student Maria Bulanova was simply not in the first game with the American winning 219-174. But Maria came back with a vengeance and won the second game 242-177 forcing a deciding game.
An open frame from Pluhowsky gave Bulanova an early lead, but by the seventh frame it was nip and tuck with neither player having the upper hand. But Pluhowsky's experience came through getting a run of strikes to win, 238-194.
So the women's final was between Clara Guerrero, the defending champion from Colombia, and Pluhowsky, who was bidding to become the first woman to win the title three times.
But Pluhowsky never found a line so Guerrero won the first game, 202-177. The Colombian went on to win the second game 243-238, becoming the sixth woman to win the World Cup twice.
Clara Guerrero winning the women's title twice
"It was a tough final. Shannon is such a tough competitor, and I knew if I could only get in front I would stand a chance," said the champion, who has won everything she can possibly win, was also delighted.
"And I made the good shots when I needed to. I really want to come back next year and try to win for the third time and set a record!"
Singapore with Muhammad Jaris in third and Geraldine Ng tieing fourth in the women's division, were presented with their trophies as top country by Tom Pippenger, the Sam's Town Bowling Centre manager.
QubicaAMF have announced that the 52nd QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup 2016 will be held in Shanghai, China.
Photos courtesy of Hero Noda, QubicaAMF.
18th November, Las Vegas: 2014 Asian Games Masters silver medalist, Wu Siu Hong of Hong Kong made the Top 8 rounds of the 51st QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup 2015 after a further eight games bowled in the Top 24 round on Wednesday.
Wu, who was third after the three blocks of preliminary qualifying round, knocked down a superb 1773 to end the round on 6991 and moved up to second overall.
Francois Louw of South Africa bowled supremely and increased his lead, hitting 1779 and finishing on 7130, a 222.81 average, over 100 ahead of second-placed Siu Hon Wu of Hong Kong on 6991.
Paul Stott Jr of Ireland just kept plugging away, bowling very consistently for a 1773 and finishing in third on 6903. But high set of the day was an excellent 1950 by Muhammad Rafiq Ismail of Malaysia, bringing him up from 23rd all the way into the top eight.
Wu Siu Hong making the Top 8 cut in second
With one game to go, four or five men were in with a shot of making the cut. Markus Jansson of Sweden was the one to miss out, finishing in 9th, 16 pins short, with Tomoyuki Sasaki of Japan going through. Kamron Doyle of the USA had a bad day, starting the day in second but dropping down the standings and finishing in 12th.
In the women's division, Milki Ng ended on her weakest 8-game block of 1501 but hung on to make the cut in 15th position with 4812. She had 1638 and 1673 on her first and second blocks.
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 sheIn the women's section, Milki Ng, who was in 15th after 24 games, suffered badly in the Top 24 round with only 1426 to finish in 20th position on 6238 and ended her campaign. The lead changed hands back and forth during the eight games for the top 24 women and in the end it was defending champion, Clara Guerrero of Colombia on top with 6901.
The real excitement came in the 31st game when Keira Ray of England shot the tournament's first 300 game. She was lying in 10th before this game and the 300 hauled her up into 9th place, 16 pins off the cut and still needing to do more to make the top eight. But she did not manage it, finishing in 9th place.
By the middle of the final game it was clear that the top eight going into this game would remain there, but the order was yet to be determined. The final scores were.
Sandra Gongoro of Mexico and Shanon Pluhowsky of USA rounded up the top three with 6874 and 6869 respectively. The cut went to Sanna Pasanen of Finland on 6646.
The tournament will shift to the round-robin, head to head round, finishing with a position round. With 30 bonus pins for a win, the field is still wide open.
At this stage there are still three countries players in both the men's and women's top eight and hence in with a chance of winning the trophy for top country: Russia, Malaysia and Singapore.
Photos courtesy of Hero Noda, QubicaAMF.
17th November, Las Vegas: 2014 Asian Games Masters silver medalist, Wu Siu Hong Kong and Milki Ng of Hong Kong, both made the Top 24 cut of the 51st QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup at the end of the third block of 8 games on Tuesday.
Wu, who was fifth after 16 games on 3482, shot 1736 in his third and final block of 8 games to finish a superb third in the leaderboard with 5201.
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.
Wu Siu Hong in action during his qualifying rounds
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, Milki Ng ended on her weakest 8-game block of 1501 but hung on to make the cut in 15th position with 4812. She had 1638 and 1673 on her first and second blocks.
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.
Milki Ng making the cut in 12th position
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.
Photos courtesy of Hero Noda, QubicaAMF.
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