In a match between two women's bowling powerhouses, the United States (pictured left) defeated Singapore, 1210-1140, to win its first gold medal in the five-player team event at a World Championship since 24 years.

Click on the images to enlarge.

It was the third consecutive gold medal for Team USA in this championship after winning the titles in Doubles and Trios.

The last time that the American women have won the Team gold was in 1987. At the 2009 Women's World Championships in Henderson, Nev., the United States lost in the gold-medal match to Korea, 1175-1071. In 2007 the Americans fell in the six-game total-pin format to Malaysia by seven pins and lost the gold to Chinese Taipei in 2005 by 12 pins.

The victory by the U.S. team also marked the fourth time in as many events that the No. 4 seed emerged victorious.

Hats off to the young Singaporean squad (pictured right), Daphne Tan, Cherie Tan, New Hui Fen, Shayna Ng and Jazreel Tan (sixth players was Geraldine Ng), which led the championship match at the halfway mark by 24 pins.

Tides turned when the Americans reeled of 15 consecutive strikes as a team. All five U.S. players, Carolyn Dorin-Ballard, Shannon Pluhowsky, Shannon O'Keefe, Kelly Kulick and Liz Johnson (sixth player was Stefanie Nation), doubled in the 10th frame to hold a comfortable 79-pin lead heading into the last frame. The U.S. team wrapped up the title with a clean 10th frame.

Singapore's anchor bowler, Jazreel Tan, who studies in the U.S. and bowls for Wichita State, had the front eight before she left a 1ß-pin in the 9th frame. Team USA anchor Liz Johnson was perfect after nine frames and also left a 10-pin standing in the 10th frame.

In the semifinals the USA eliminated top seeded Germany (pictured left), 1080-970, while Singapore, seeded second, topped No. 3 seed Colombia (pictured right), in another high-scoring match, 1225-1103. Singapore took the silver medal while Germany and Colombia shared the bronze medal. It was an impressive showing by all four teams.

The 2011 Women's World Championships will conclude on Sunday, Sept. 11 with the Masters competition at Hong Kong Bowling City in Hong Kong, China.

The Germans have four players in the opening Round of 16 in best of-three-games match play, while Team USA and Singapore are represented by three players each. Defending Team champion Korea, who missed the finals in fifth place, also has four players in the Masters, while Canada and Denmark will each be represented by one player.

The photo shows the top 3 in All Events: L-R Caroline Lagrange (2nd), Canada; Mai Ginge Jensen (1st), Demark; and Shannon Pluhowsky (3rd), United States. Click on the image to enlarge it.

The fourth Women's World Championships takes place at bowling center 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 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 was played on "Paris" and Doubles was contested on "Seoul", while Trios and Team will feature both oil patterns (3 games on each pattern). Masters match play will be staged on dual lane condition (one lane dressed with the Seoul pattern and the other lane dressed with the Paris 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. Pictured left are commentators Jason Overstreet (l.) and Lucas Wiseman (r.) at work.

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.