Team USA's Bill O'Neill (pictured left) started the 2010 Men's World Championships with victory in Singles Saturday at Dream-Bowl Palace in Unterföhring near Munich, Germany.

The reigning U.S. Open champion defeated Choi Bok-Eum, Korea, 244-202, to capture the first gold medal of the Championships. Bok-Eum, who has won the gold medal in All Events at the 2008 MWC in Thailand, received the silver medal.

The top 4 of the 256 players from 65 countries after six games preliminaries advanced to the playoffs. O'Neill, who finished his preliminaries with eight consecutive strikes and a 9-count to earn the No. 4 seed, eliminated No. 1 seeded Dominic Barrett, England, 187-170, to advance to the title match.

L-R Silver medalist Choi Bok-Eum, World Champion Bill O'Neill, and bronze medalists Chris Barnes and Dominic Barrett, England. Click on the image to enlarge it.

In the other semifinal, Choi defeated 2007-08 PBA Player of the Year, Chris Barnes, 217-191. Barrett and Barnes shared the bronze medal.

Action shifts to the Doubles preliminaries on Sunday (3 squads) and Monday (2 squads) with the playoffs of the top four duos starting on Monday at 6 p.m. CET (noon EST).

2010 Men's World Championships - Singles Playoffs

Dream-Bowl Palace in Unterföhring near Munich, Germany (Aug. 14, 2010)

Championship Round:
1. Bill O'Neill, United States
2. Choi Bok-Eum, Korea
3. Dominic Barrett, England and Chris Barnes, United States.

Playoff Results:
Semifinal Match 1: #4 O'Neill def. #1 Barrett, 187-170
Semifinal Match 2: #2 Choi def. #3 Barnes, 217-191
Championship: O'Neill def. Choi, 244-202.

 

Singles Semifinals

Singles Championship Match

Singles Award Ceremonies

The 2010 WTBA Men's World Championships will run through Aug. 21st. 356 players from 65 countries will compete for medals in six events - Singles, Doubles, Trios, five-player Team, All Events and Masters match play.

Bowlingdigital.com plans to live stream portions of the event and bowling fans around the world will be able to watch the semifinals, finals and award ceremonies of each event. The Bowlingdigital team consists of Herbert Bickel (editor), Flavio Cuva (Live Streaming/Video) and Beat Grauwiler (photos).

PBA Hall of Famer Brian Voss (pictured left) will serve as color commentator and Ted Thompson (right), lane maintenance expert with Kegel, the official lane maintenance provider of the Championships, will serve as analyst. Lucas Wiseman of USBC Communications will assist as play-by-play analyst.

The preliminaries of each event will be streamed with a web cam.

Live streaming will be available at Bowlingdigital's Ustream TV Channel

Click here to go to the Live Scoring.

Photos can be found on Facebook:
Folder 1
Folder 2
Folder 3
Folder 4
All photos by Bowlingdigital/Beat Grauwiler.

 

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