Leade'rs curse still intact; No. 1 seed Korea and Malaysia share the bronze

Craig Hanson & Andrew Koff and Devin Bidwell & Jacob Peters swept the gold and silver medals in Boys Singles in the World Youth Championships Wednesday evening at Tali Bowl in Helsinki, Finland.

L-R Peters, Bidwell, Hanson and Koff.

In the title match in a quite relaxed atmosphere, Hanson/Koff, seeded fourth, defeated their teammates Bidwell/Peters, seeded second, 428-426. Hanson shot 227 and Koff had 201, while Bidwell shot 222 and Peters added 204.

"It was really relaxing, and we were just having fun out there doing our best," Koff said. "We got both medals, that's what we were out here for."

In the gold-medal match, Bidwell and Peters looked like they would be on their way to the title, leading by more than 50 pins at the halfway point. But Hanson finished with six consecutive strikes and then Koff doubled in the 10th to give them the gold.

"We never let ourselves get out of it mentally," Hanson said (on the left). "We talked to each other and said that we needed to have a strong last half, make a good ball change, make good shots and hopefully that would get us the gold."

The playoffs between the best four of a total of 71 doubles began in sharp contrast to the six-game preliminaries earlier on Wednesday. While the top 4 averaged between 219 and 225 in the preliminaries, the semifinals were an unexpected low-scoring affair.

The leader's curse is still intact as tournament leaders Kim Ju-Young and Shin Seung-Hyeon, Korea, lost their semifinal match against Hanson/Koff, 380-363.

Kim and Shin had low games of 171 and 190 in the first and second game of the preliminaries, respectively before the duo averaged almost 240 for the last four games and finished with 474, 465, 492 and 482 for 2705 pinfall total and an average of 225,42. Shin (1365) had 957 for his last four games and Kim (1340) was just one pin behind with 956.

In four events thus far (Boys and Girls Singles and Doubles), bowlers from Korea have captured three top seeds and one second seed. The sole gold medal came in Girls Singles, when second seeded Kim Yeon-Ju cruised to the title. The top seeds are 0-4 in match play thus far.

Hanson/Koff took the fourth and final spot to advance to the playoffs with 2632 and an average of 219.33. England's Richard Teece and Matt Chamberlain, who were second to Bidwell/Peters in the third and last squad, missed the playoffs by 78 pins to finish fifth with 2554.

The Americans closed out their block with a huge 490 game to help grab the No. 2 seed with 2678 (223.17). Bidwell (194) and Peters (192) bowled a solid game in the semis to eliminate No. 3 seeded Malaysians, Aris Ardilla Santosoh (174) and Syimir Abdul Razak (169), 386-343. The Malaysians had 2638 in the preliminaries or an average of 219.83.

Mats Maggi from Belgium overtook the lead in All Events (combined results in Singles, Doubles and Team) after 12 of 18 games with 2748 and an average of 229.00. Maggi is the sole player from Belgium at the World Youth Championships and bowls Doubles and Team in one of the pacer teams.

Maggi posted the field-best 1478 series in Doubles, 15 pins shy of the individual six-game record set by Dominic Barrett, England, in 2008 (1494) to lead Park Jong-Woo , Korea, by 45 pins. Park is second with 2703, two pins ahead of Andrew Koff, USA, who used the highest six-game block in doubles competition (1393) to move into third place with 2701.

The boys are done for today and will return on Thursday for the first block in the Boys and Girls Team event on short oil followed by the second block on long oil on Friday. The semifinals and finals of the Team event are scheduled to begin on Saturday morning at 8 a.m. CET (2 a.m. EDT ).

The United States Bowling Congress is working in cooperation with the Finnish Bowling Federation to provide live video streaming of the semifinals and finals of each event.

 

 

Review the Live Streaming

 

 

 

 

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11th World Youth Championships - Boys Doubles

Championship Round:
1. United States (Craig Hanson & Andrew Koff)
2. United States (Devin Bidwell & Jacob Peters)
3. Korea (Kim Ju-Young & Shin Seung-Hyeon) and Malaysia (Aris Ardilla Santosoh & Syimir Abdul Razak)

Playoff Results:
Semifinal Match 1: #4 United States (Craig Hanson 182, Andrew Koff 198) def.
#1 Korea (Kim Ju-Young 185, Shin Seung-Hyeon 178), 380-363
Semifinal Match 2: #2 United States (Devin Bidwell 194, Jacob Peters 192) def.
#3 Malaysia (Aris Ardilla 174, Syimir Razak 169), 386-343
Title Match: United States (Craig Hanson 227, Andrew Koff 201) def.
United States (Devin Bidwell 222, Jacob Peters 204), 428-426.

 

 

Boys Doubles - Preliminaries after six games

The top 4 advance to the playoffs.

Team High Games/High Series:
1 Game - Aleksey Vasilenko/Roman Starchenkov, Russia, 501
3 Games - Kim Ju-Young/Shin Seung-Hyeon, Korea, 1439
6 Games - Kim Ju-Young/Shin Seung-Hyeon, Korea, 2705

Individual High Games/High Series:
1 Game - Jorge Luis Ramos, Mexico, 279
3 Games - Kim Ju-Young, Korea, 723
6 Games - Andrew Koff, United States, 1393

 

 

Boys All Events - Standings after 12 of 18 games

The top 16 will advance to Masters match play.