World Youth Championships All-Events champions Shion Izumune (left), Japan, and USA's Wesley Low (right) continued to lead the Masters competition as the girls' and boys' field was trimmed to the top 8 Thursday at SCAA bowling center in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, China.

15-year-old Izumune, who carried 18-game total of 3836 into Round One, averaged 197.50 for six games on dual lane condition including 248 and 207 in the last two games to finish atop the leaderboard with 5021 total and an average of 209.21 for 24 games.

All-Events silver medalist Mary Wells (left), United States, overtook Izumune after four games but slipped back to second place with 4985 behind games of 184 and 193.

Daria Kovalova of Ukraine moved up one spot to third place with 4950 and Sanna Pasanen (right) of Finland leaped from fifth to fourth place with 4983.

Mirai Ishimoto had the field-best 1289 series, an average of 214.83 to jump from 10th to fifth place with 4938, just five pins off the pace for the top 4.

Rounding out the top 8 were Jenny Wegner, Sweden (4931), All-Events bronze medalist Liz Kuhlkin, United States (4896) and Nadia Pramanik (left) of Indonesia, who fired a 232 last game to beat out Japan's Kana Shimoide for the eighth and last place to advance by 15 pins, 4882 to 4867.

In the Boys Masters, Wesley Low, 17, who set a new WYC record for 18 games in All-Events with 4224 and an average of 234.67, started the day with a 129 cushion over teammate Kamron Doyle and 146 pins ahead of All-Events bronze medalist Jesper Svensson of Sweden.

For the first time in this Championships, two-handed lefty Low, who the lone 300 game of the event yesterday (right), averaged under 200 finishing with 1191 and 5415 total, an average of 225.63 for 24 games. 16-year-old Doyle had games of 241, 175, 249, 200 and 225 to overtake his teammate by just one after 23 games, but Low regained the lead with 231, his highest game of the round.

Doyle (left) sits 27 pins behind in second place with 5388 and is followed by Svensson, who narrowed the gap to two pins with 5386.

There is a bigger gap between the top 3 and the rest of the field. Fourth and fifth place belonged to Svensson's teammates Pontus Andersson (5136) and Magnus Johnson (5132), who used a 1336 series today to climb five spots into the top 8.

L-R Svensson, Johnson and Andersson.

Rounding out the top 8 for round robin match play were Muhd Rafiq Ismail, Malaysia (5131), local favorite Michael Mak (right), Hong Kong (5123) and Singles champion Choi Woo Sub, Korea, with 5110 or an average of 212.92.

L-R Tan, Muaz and Rafiq.

Dutch Ramon Hilferink finished with a big 248 game but fell 13 pins short off the top 8 to land in 9th place with 5097.

The top 24 girls and boys in the All-Events standings (combined results in Singles, Doubles and Team qualifying) advanced to the Masters which will conclude the competition of the 13th Chinese Gold & Silver Exchange Society World Youth Championships in Hong Kong on Thursday and Friday.

All finalists bowled six games on dual lane condition on Thursday starting at 11 a.m. HK time with the 18-game total from All-Events being carried forward.

During Masters competition, the left lane is dressed with the 45 feet 'long' Mexico City pattern and the right lane is dressed with the 35 feet 'short' Beijing pattern.

The top eight girls and boys with the highest 24-game total advanced to the match play round on Friday starting at 9 a.m. After seven games of round robin match play the top 4 in each division with the highest 31-game total including match play bonus (20 pins per win, 10 for a tie) will bowl for the medals Friday afternoon from 1 to 3 p.m.

The victory banquet, slated for 7 p.m. at Panda Grand Ballroom, Panda Hotel, will conclude the 13th World Youth Championships.


In cooperation with the Asian Bowling Federation (ABF) and the Hong Kong Tenpin Bowling Congress, Bowlingdigital.com will cover the Championships live from Hong Kong.

The United States Bowling Congress is working in cooperation with the host federation, the Hong Kong Tenpin Bowling Congress, to provide live streaming on BowlTV.


This World Youth Championships is made possible by title sponsor, The Chinese Gold & Silver Exchange Society World, and co-sponsors Chancellor Precious Metals, Fine Metal Asia Limited, Glory Sky and Safe Gold Bullion Limited as well as Watsons Water and Mr. Juicy, the Official Drink Sponsor of the event.