Kevin Belandria (pictured left) of Venezuela and Colombia's Juliana Franco (right) took the boys and girls singles gold medal in the opening event of the 2011 Pan American Bowling Confederation Youth Championships in the under 20-divison.

Belandria sandwiched low games of 164 and 151 between high games of 233, 256 and 210, 237 in each of his three-game blocks to lead the field of 49 players from 15 countries with 1251 six-game total and an average of 208.50.

James Stanley (below left), Costa Rica, finished with 219 to help grab the silver medal with 1245.

Andrew Koff (richt photo, on the right, United States, who started with the highest three-game series of the event (691), led the field after five games despite a 145 in game four. Koff, who finished second at the USBC Junior Gold Championships last week, closed out with 202 to share the bronze medal with Sandro Perrino (right photo, on the left), Venezuela, at 1239.

Koff's team mates Marshall Kent and E.J. Tackett missed a medal by three and six pins, respectively, finishing in fifth and sixth place with 1236 and 1233.

On the girls side, Juliana Franco of Colombia posted the two highest three-game series of the 35 girls from eleven countries (648 and 643) to cruise to the gold medal with the highest total - both girls and boys - of 1291 and an average of 215.17.

Junior Team USA's Elise Bolton (left) was 80 pins behind in second place with 1211 (201.83) and was the only other player over par (based on a 200 average). Like Koff, Bolton finished second at Junior Gold amd also had a bad game (150) in game 4.

Puerto Rico's Neishka Cardona (right) took the bronze medal with 1179. Bolton's team mate Kaitlin Quinn just missed a medal by 13 pins, finishing fourth with 1166.

In the under-16 division, Lorenzo Young (left) of Panama and Aruba's Abigail Dammers (right) captured the first gold medals of the championships.

Young averaged 194.20 over five games to lead the group of 12 players from six countries - two each from Argentina, Aruba, Brazil, Colombia, Panama and Puerto Rico - with 971 total.

Puerto Rico's Rafael Pizarro (below left) used a high game of 224 to land in second place with 936. Bronze went to Thiago Felicetti (below right), Brazil, who totaled 908 pins.

Dammers closed out her five-game series with 191 and 221 to finish atop a group of nine players from five countries - Aruba, Colombia, Guatemala, Panama and Puerto Rico - with 889 total and an average of 177.80.

Just seven pins behind was Alexandra Mosquera (below left), who used the highest game of 235 and four games between 158 and 164 for 882. Nicole Fung  Calleja (below right), Panama, took bronze with 878.

The PABCON Youth Championships continue Tuesday with the Doubles event.

BOWL.com will provide free live streaming of the under-20 division.
July 19 - 1:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Doubles
July 20 - 12:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. Trios
July 21 - 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Team
July 22 - 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Team
July 23 - 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Masters