CLASH OF THE TITANS IN JOHANNESBURG AS BELMO CLINCHES BOWLING WORLD CUP
The stepladder final of the 47th QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup in Johannesburg was a thrilling, noisy climax to this year’s tournament.
After emerging from qualifying and quarter final rounds in which four of the top eight male bowlers posted perfect games, Ukraine’s Mykhalo Kalika faced in-form Aussie, Jason Belmonte in the first match of the best-of-three game semi-final.
Multi award-winning Jason Belmonte took the first game with a conservative 237-203 scoreline, but 23 year-old Kalika rallied in the second 266-248 to set up an edge-of-the-seat decider. Kalika’s open frames in 2 and 6 allowed Belmonte to cruise to a 266-185 semis win, and a very short break to prepare for the highly anticipated Belmonte-Jones Final.
The buzz in the 24-lane Let’s Go Bowling Northcliff centre reached fever pitch as Belmo stepped onto the lanes at the start of the televised Final. Belmo’s opponent, American Tommy Jones, is a fellow exempt bowler on the PBA pro tour in the United States and the match was seen as a clash of the titans in what’s billed at the world’s largest international sports event. Players representing 83 countries competed in this year’s Bowling World Cup in South Africa.
Jones posted a near-flawless 279-259 win in the first of the best-of-three game Final. Spurred on by the noisy crowd, Belmonte countered in the second with a 247-216 win to set the stage for an enthralling finale. Belmo began with a four-bagger, and undaunted by a spare in his first frame, Jones then matched with strikes till the turning point in frame 8 when he left a solid 10 pin and Belmo hammered on to a 259-236 win, and his first Bowling World Cup title.
In the opening match of the Women’s division earlier in the day, Sweden’s Sandra Andersson came out of the blocks with a decisive 267-217 win against 2006 World Cup champion Diandra Asbaty from the United States. However, Asbaty fought back in the second and deciding third game with 247-219 and 279-243 wins to sweep into the Final against reigning champion, Aumi Guerra from the Dominican Republic.
34 year-old Guerra had dominated the women’s qualifying rounds and began the Final match strongly, overpowering Asbaty 266-201 in Game 1. Again, however, Asbaty fought back to win the second game 227-214 and it came down to a cliff-hanger 202-199 third game that delivered Guerra the honour of two consecutive Bowling World Cup titles. Only one female bowler has previously won back to back World Cup titles – Australia’s Jeanette Baker, who took the coveted twin titles in 1982 and 1983.
QubicaAMF Worldwide is the founder, organiser and principal sponsor of the Bowling World Cup. Additional information on the QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup, including archives and full scores of the 2012 tournament can be found on
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Jason Belmonte will return to Sydney on Friday, and back to his home and family in Orange for a well-earned rest over Christmas, after a series of stunning tournament successes stretching from Las Vegas to Johannesburg in recent weeks.
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