St Petersburg: In an awesome display of tenacity and skill, the Australian bowling duo of Ann Maree Putney and Jason Belmonte stunned the capacity crowd at St Petersburg’s Kontinent Bowling Centre today.
Coming into the matchplay rounds this morning as top seed, Orange bowler Jason Belmonte underlined his supremacy over the field of the world’s top amateurs by shooting a spectacular 300 in Game 39 on his way to securing pole position for tomorrow’s stepladder final. 24 year-old Belmonte finished with a grand total of 9540, including bonus points, 188 clear of Bill Hoffman of the USA, with Andres Gomez of Colombia in third place on 9008.
With one game - the position round - to go, Gomez was just 10 ahead of 2005 World Cup champion, Michael Schmidt from Canada, but the South American’s 234-179 win delivered the finals berth to Gomez who is making his fifth tilt at the Bowling World Cup crown.
In the women’s division at the other end of the 32-lane house, Newcastle’s Ann Maree Putney stated her intentions with an emphatic 256 win in the first of the round-robin matches and then shot lines of 236, 152 (oops!), 226, 207, 245, 237 and 235 to post a matchplay total of 1794 and finish on top of the field with 8745, with bonus points for her five winning games.
It went down to the wire for the next placings, with Sharon Koh from Malaysia lying second, Tina Hulsch of Germany third and Sun Hee Lee of Korea in fourth place, within 11 pins of each other going into the final game. Putney shot a 235-201 game against Koh, while the German and Korean bowlers played out a 216 draw, earning 15 bonus points each and edging the young Malaysian into fourth place, and out of tomorrow’s finals by a margin of just 19.
Today’s outstanding performance by the Aussie duo guarantees the coveted Top Country trophy to Australia and sets up the thrilling prospect of an all-Australian World Cup victory for tomorrow’s best-two of three-game stepladder finals that will be televised live in Russia, and across Europe via Eurosport.
Now in its 43rd year, the QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup is the largest annual international sports competition in the world in terms of number of participating nations – this year attracting national representatives from 88 countries.
Full results are published on the QubicaAMF website – www.qubicaamf.com
ends
For further information, to arrange interviews, or high res pics by BWC official photographer Hero Noda, please contact Lynne Clay via email at lynneclay@bigpond.com
Coming into the matchplay rounds this morning as top seed, Orange bowler Jason Belmonte underlined his supremacy over the field of the world’s top amateurs by shooting a spectacular 300 in Game 39 on his way to securing pole position for tomorrow’s stepladder final. 24 year-old Belmonte finished with a grand total of 9540, including bonus points, 188 clear of Bill Hoffman of the USA, with Andres Gomez of Colombia in third place on 9008.
With one game - the position round - to go, Gomez was just 10 ahead of 2005 World Cup champion, Michael Schmidt from Canada, but the South American’s 234-179 win delivered the finals berth to Gomez who is making his fifth tilt at the Bowling World Cup crown.
In the women’s division at the other end of the 32-lane house, Newcastle’s Ann Maree Putney stated her intentions with an emphatic 256 win in the first of the round-robin matches and then shot lines of 236, 152 (oops!), 226, 207, 245, 237 and 235 to post a matchplay total of 1794 and finish on top of the field with 8745, with bonus points for her five winning games.
It went down to the wire for the next placings, with Sharon Koh from Malaysia lying second, Tina Hulsch of Germany third and Sun Hee Lee of Korea in fourth place, within 11 pins of each other going into the final game. Putney shot a 235-201 game against Koh, while the German and Korean bowlers played out a 216 draw, earning 15 bonus points each and edging the young Malaysian into fourth place, and out of tomorrow’s finals by a margin of just 19.
Today’s outstanding performance by the Aussie duo guarantees the coveted Top Country trophy to Australia and sets up the thrilling prospect of an all-Australian World Cup victory for tomorrow’s best-two of three-game stepladder finals that will be televised live in Russia, and across Europe via Eurosport.
Now in its 43rd year, the QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup is the largest annual international sports competition in the world in terms of number of participating nations – this year attracting national representatives from 88 countries.
Full results are published on the QubicaAMF website – www.qubicaamf.com
ends
For further information, to arrange interviews, or high res pics by BWC official photographer Hero Noda, please contact Lynne Clay via email at lynneclay@bigpond.com
