Team USA's Stefanie Nation and Shannon O'Keefe (pictured, l-r) defeated their team mates Kelly Kulick and Missy Parkin, 482-438, in the championship match off the women's Doubles en route to win first gold medal for the U.S. women's team at the 2103 combined World Championships in Henderson, Nev.

It is the fourth gold medal in a World Championship for both players as they each won a Singles gold medal (O'Keefe in 2007, Nation in 2009) and teamed for the trios and team gold in 2011.

"Obviously you want to win, but when you bowl your teammates it takes a little of the pressure off because you know your country is going to win no matter what," O'Keefe said. "It's hard to describe what it feels like to do what you love and represent your country like this."

Nation threw seven strikes in a row from the second frame to the eighth in the title match and bowled a clean game en route to the gold medal.

"Winning a gold medal for your country is amazing, and this just feels awesome," Nation said. "At the end of the day, we wanted the U.S. to win and that's what happened."

Nation shot a huge 258 game in the finals and O'Keefe added 224, while Kulick had a 245 and Parkin toppled 193 pins.

Kulick started the medal round with a bang by rolling the sixth 300 game of the tournament and the first by a woman to carry her team mate to a 483-373 victory against the top seeded Karen and Alicia Marcano (right, l-r) of Venezuela.

The sisters showed an outstanding performance to lead the 104 doubles from 36 countries in qualifying with 2880 series including final games of 526 and 503, just 21 pins short of the World Championships record.

In the other semifinals, O'Keefe had a huge 268 game while Nation contributed 201 to defeat Australia's Ann-Maree Putney and Carol Gianotti (left, l-r), 469-430.

Nation and O'Keefe (right) won the third gold medal for the United States in this Championships but the first for the women's team, which is the defending champion in five of the six disciplines (Doubles, Trios, Team, All-Events and Masters).

Kulick and Parkin (left, r-l) received the silver medal. The Australians earned the bronze medal following a silver medal in Doubles at the 2009 Women's World Championships, also in Las Vegas. The Marcano sisters shared the bronze medal with the Aussie.

The last two spots for the finals were decided in a super-exciting sixth game. The Marcanos as well as Nation and O'Keefe were too far ahead to drop out of the top 4. Putney and Gianotti fired a 497 game to overtake Kulick and Parkin by 12 pins, 2748-2736.

Finishing with a 428 game, the Americans were suddenly in danger to miss the medal round as the next four teams had higher games. However, all of them fell short.

Koreans Lee Na-Young and Jung Da-Wun (left, l-r) finished with 455 and 2734 total in fifth place just two pins short off the medals. Esther Cheah and Sin Li Jane (457; right, r-l) were eight pins behind the Koreans in sixth place with 2726.

Colombia's Maria Jose Rodriguez and Clara Guerrero (left, l-r) closed with 500 to land in seventh place with 2725 followed by Koreans Seo-Yeon Ryu and Yun-Hee Son of Squad 1 with 3709 and Singapore's Bernice Lim and Jazreel Tan with 2700 in eighth and ninth place.

Defending champions Shannon Pluhowsky and Liz Johnson (right, r-l), USA, finished in 10th place with 2694.

Chinese Taipei spinners Huang Chiung-Yao (left) and Wang Ya-Ting (right) lead the 212-player women's field in All-Events (combined qualifying results in Singles, Doubles, Trios and Team) with 2718 (226.50) and 2680 (223.33), respectively.

Shannon O'Keefe moved into third place with 2665 and is followed by Koreans Ryu Seo-Yeon and Baek Seung-Ja in fourth and fifth place with 2653 and 2622, resp. Kamilla Kjeldsen of Denmark is the best European woman so far in 19th place with 2536.

Action shifts to the Trios event Friday thru Monday. All players will bowl two three-game blocks of qualifying, one each on the short and the long oil pattern. The men's and women's field will be split into two squads.

The men bowl their first block on Friday and the women will follow on Saturday. The men return on Sunday for the second block followed by the medal round. The women will bowl their second block and the medal round on Monday.

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The World Tenpin Bowling Association World Championships run from Aug. 16 thru 31, 2013 at Sunset Station's Strike Zone in Henderson, Nev. in the Las Vegas area. The Championships will award medals in six disciplines - Singles, Doubles, Trios, Team, All Events and Masters.

The entire competition will be broadcast live on BOWL.com's BowlTV. Bowling fans will be able to watch live and on demand for free. The schedule is available at BOWL.com/LiveStream.