Squad 1 leader Son-Yun Hee of Korea held on to the lead in Singles after the second squad has finished their six-game preliminaries Saturday afternoon at the Women's World Championships in Hong Kong, China.

Son, who averaged 249.33 for a record 1496 pins, holds a 10-pin lead over Jacqueline Sijore. The Malaysian (pictured left) led Squad 2 with 1486 (247.67) and was followed by Dane Anja Ginge Jensen (right), who moved into third place with 1442. Team USA's Shannon O'Keefe fell to fourth place with 1441.

The fourth Women's World Championships got underway Saturday with the first two of three squads in Singles at Hong Kong Bowling City, a 48-laner inside EMAX mall in Kowloon Bay.

The players from Squad 3 will complete the preliminaries on Sunday morning with the top four players advancing to the semifinals starting at 1.30 p.m. Hong Kong time.

37 of the 58 players in Squad 2 started with games of 200 and more. Hayley Rumkee (left) of England set the early pace with 278 and was followed by Sijore with 266. Rebecca Whiting of Australia, Korea's Jeon Eun-Hee (right) and Dutch Ghislaine van der Tol were tied for third place at 258.

Sijore added 279 in game two to overtake the lead with 545, 31 pins better than Squad 1 leader Son at the same time. Rumkee fell to second with 524 and van der Tol was third with 517. Rounding out the top 4, who reached the 500-mark was Puteri Astari, Indonesia, with 504.

Sijore carried the momentum into the third game firing another 267 for 812 total, an average of 270.66, to break the record for three games - set by Son earlier today with 771 - by 41 pins.

Another eight players surpassed the 300-bar. Rumkee held on to second place with 770, Astari moved to third with 742. Jeon overtook fourth place with 738 and Anja Ginge Jensen leaped into fifth with 730.

Sixth place belonged to Sandra Andersson (pictured left with team mate Elin Adolfsson, right), Sweden, with 728, who was followed by Whiting in seventh with 719 and Nina Manninen, Finland, in eighth with 707. Joining the 700-club was Heidi Thorstensen (right), Norway, in ninth place with 706.

Sijore continued her torrid pace in game four with 258 for 1070. Jeon had the second 290 game of the championship to jump into second place with 1028. Rumkee slipped to third place with 1004.

Jensen missed the 1000-mark by just one pin to sit in fourth with 999. The top 13 in Squad 2 were better than 900, an average of 225, including Team USA's Shannon Pluhowsky (left) and Liz Johnson (right), who were ninth and 13th with 926 and 913, respectively.

Sijore's strike fest came to an end in game five, but she managed 202, which brought her total to 1272 or an average of 254.40 for five games. Jensen and Rumkee narrowed the gap to 38 and 47 pins with 1234 and 1225, respectively. Jeon fell to fourth behind a 176 game but still surpassed the 1200-mark with 1204.

Needing 225 in the last game to overtake Son (pictured left), the young Malaysian fell short with 214 to settle for second place. Jensen had 208, just enough to overtake 2007 Singles World Champion O'Keefe (right) by one pin.

Geraldine Ng, Singapore, and Clara Juliana Guerrero, the two-time World Champion from Colombia, slipped out of the top four to fifth and sixth place, respectively.

Tali Itzhak from Israel started her last game with a nine-bagger and had a chance to overtake Jensen with a 300 game. The young Israeli buried the first ball in the 10th frame in pocket but left a 10-pin standing which sealed her fate. She finished with 278 and 1428 to sit in seventh place with the last squad to go.

Among the players, who will take to the lanes on Sunday morning at 9 a.m. are Team USA's Carolyn Dorin-Ballard (left), a 20-time PWBA champion who currently leads the World Bowling Tour women's rankings, and Kelly Kulick (right), who made sports history when she defeated Chris Barnes, 265-195, to win the 45th PBA Tournament of Champions becoming the first woman ever to win a PBA Tour title.

Their team mate, defending champion Stefanie Nation (below right), will not repeat as Singles World Champion. Nation had 1327 in Squad 1 and is currently tied for 28th place.

The fourth Women's World Championships takes place at Hong Kong Bowling City in Hong Kong, China, from Sept. 1 through 11, 2011.

171 of the best women bowlers in the world featuring 33 countries will compete for gold, silver and bronze medals in Singles, Doubles, Trios, five-player Team event, All Events and Masters in the nine-day event.

The WTBA patterns "Seoul" and "Paris" will be used in Hong Kong. The 39-feet Seoul pattern is the second-shortest of the four "medium" WTBA certified lane patterns. With a length of 47 feet, Paris is the longest of all 12 certified patterns.

Singles is being played on "Paris" and Doubles will be contested on "Seoul", while Trios and Team will feature both oil patterns (3 games on each pattern). The Masters will be staged on dual lane condition (one lane dressed with the medium pattern and the other lane dressed with the long pattern).

The top four players and teams after six games in Singles, Doubles, Trios and Team, respectively, will advance to the semifinals. The No. 1 meet No. 4 and No. 2 takes on No. 3. The winners will determine the World Champion, while the losers will share the bronze medal. All matches are single-game matches.

Bowlingdigital will cover the 2011 Women's World Championships live from Hong Kong with stories and results after each squad and each round of the finals.

Bowling fans around the world will be able to watch all qualifying rounds, semifinals and finals live on BOWL.com and the coverage will be available on demand as well. The live streaming coverage is a partnership between USBC, WTBA, the Hong Kong Tenpin Bowling Congress and Bowlingdigital.com. The live streaming schedule is identical with the tournament schedule.