Jo Namyi, Lee Nahyun win international preliminaries at Bowling World Open

    07/10/15

    2015 World Bowling Tour #13

    Koreans lead the top 20 men and 20 women into the main event which starts Saturday morning at Round1 Minamisuma in Tokyo, Japan

    2015BWOSingaporeWomenNationalTeamBanner.jpg

     

    2015WBONamyiJo.jpg2015WBOLeeNahyun.jpgKorea's Jo Namyi (pictured left) and Lee Nahyun (right) finished the international preliminaries at the Bowling World Open, a World Bowling Tour "major" tournament, atop the men's and women's leaderboard to lead the top 20 players in each division into the main event starting on Saturday morning at Round1 Minamisuma bowling center in Tokyo, Japan.

    Pictured above is the Singaporean women's national team. Photo Hero Noda.

    Namyi, a professional bowler and former Korean national team member, averaged 252.33 in Squad 8/10 Friday at Shinagawa Prince Hotel bowling center, including games of 235, 245 and 277, to win the men's preliminaries for the non-exempt international participants with 757 pinfall total.

    2015WBOHongHaesol.jpg 2014MWCMarshallKent.jpgHis compatriot Hong Haesol (left) started Squad 9 with back-to-back 257 games but had to settle for second place with 755 after closing with 241. Total 13 Korean men advanced to the qualifying portion of the Bowling World Open.

    2014 PBA Rookie of the Year Marshall Kent (right) was the best of five PBA bowlers, who survived the cut. The one-time PBA champion rebounded from a slow start in Squad 8 (213) with 276 and 258 to rocket into third place with 747.

    Lee Youngjun of Korea, who led the 62-player field after the first six squads on Thursday, slipped to fourth place with 746.

    2014PBATommyJones2.jpg2013WCTimmyTan2.jpgJoining Kent in the main event were his fellow PBA bowlers Mika Koivuniemi (6th; 741), Bill O'Neill (9th; 733), Tommy Jones (left; 11th; 724) and Sean Rash (13th, 721). Finnish native Koivuniemi was the lone European bowler in the field.

    Due to a cooperation between World Bowling and the PBA, the World Bowling Open will award a PBA title if won by a PBA member.

    Malaysian national team members Timmy Tan (right) and Alex Liew took the remaining spots. Tan, who toppled 718 in Squad 2, slipped to 16th place, while Liew had 711 in Squad 8 to finish in 19th place.

    Yongjin Gu, who tied Liew at 711, an average of 237, took the 20th and last spot to advance, due to the higher difference between his highest (269) and lowest (198) game. The international bowlers received one more spot than reported yesterday as the number of invited (exempt) players has changed.

    2015WBOHwangYeonju.jpg2015WBOJungDawun.jpgThe top 5 on the women's leaderboard remained unchanged during squads 7-10. Lee Nahyun, who finished her 760 series in Squad 3 with a 300 game, led the 42 player field with an average of 253.33.

    Places 2, 3 and 4 belonged to her fellow countrywomen Hwang Yeonju (left; 749), Jung Dawun (right; 734) and Baek Seungja (727). The Korean women took half of the 20 spots which qualified for the main event.

    Syaidatul Afifah (below left) of Malaysia was the best non-Korean woman in fifth place with 726 and will be joined in the finals by team mate Siti Safiyah, who posted 716 in the last squad to leap into 10th place.

    2015BWOSyaidatulAfifah.jpg2014EBT04JazreelTan2.jpgSquad 10 was won by Joey Yeo of Singapore, who jumped into sixth place with 726, including a 269 last game.

    Yeo will be joined by five Singaporean national team members, Cherie Tan (7th; 720), Jazreel Tan (right; 12th; 711), New Hui Fen (14th; 705), Bernice Lim (15th; 703) Kristin Quah, who took the 20th and last spot with 686 or an average of 228.67.

    Jenny Wegner of Sweden was the lone European woman, who survived the cut in 11th place with 713. Rounding out the top 20 was Team USA member Danielle McEwan, who finished in 18th place with 697.

    The preliminaries drew 104 international bowlers and the 323 Japanese bowlers, 217 men (high score: 767) and 76 women (high score: 793, including the lone 300).

    All finalists will return on Saturday for the qualifying portion starting at 10.40 a.m. (men) and 3.50 p.m. (women) Japan Standard Time (JST) at Round1 Minamisuma bowling center. The top 33 men and women will advance to the semi-finals which will be held simultaneously starting at 8 p.m.

    Photos of the Koreans courtesy of Max Bulanov.

    2015WBOPoster.jpg 2015JBCLogo.jpg The inaugural Bowling World Open, the 13th event on the 2015 World Bowling Tour and one of the Tour's "major" tournaments, will be held from July 9-12 in Tokyo, Japan. The richest event on the 2015 WBT schedule offers total prize fund of 48 million Japanese Yen, currently 394,750 U.S. Dollar as of today.

    Men and women will compete in separate divisions for the same amount of prize money (24 million Yen each) using the same format. The men's and women's champion will walk away with the 10 million Yen top prize (approx. $82,240).

    The Japanese and the international preliminaries got underway on Thursday, July 9, at Round1 Minamisuma and Shinagawa Prince Hotel bowling centers in Tokyo, Japan.

    There are 110 spots in each division available for the qualifying of the main event which will be filled with 20 players from the Japanese and 20 players from the international preliminaries and 70 invited players.

    All players, who were invited by the organizers, skipped the preliminaries and were automatically seeded into the main tournament.

    The World Bowling Open main event features five games of qualifying with the top 33 advancing to the semifinals. All pinfall carries over into the three-game round after which the field will be trimmed to the top 4 men and the top 4 women who will proceed to the TV Finals in single-elimination match play format.

    The top seeded player after eight games will bowl the No. 4 seed and the second-seeded player takes on the No. 3 seed. The winners will bowl for the title.

    The Bowling World Open treats men and women equally with 10 million Yen top prize (approx. $81,600) each going to the men's and women's winner. The first runner-up receives 5 million Yen (approx. $40,800) and the losers of the opening matches will finish tied for third place, worth 1.5 million Yen apiece (approx. $12.240).

    MakuhariMesseTokyoJapan.jpg The international preliminaries will be held at Shinagawa Prince Hotel bowling center Thursday and Friday, July 9 & 10. The qualifying round of the main event and the semifinals will follow Saturday, July 11, at Round1 Minamisuma bowling center, which will also host the local preliminaries.

    The finals (to be broadcasted by TV Tokyo) will be conducted on Sunday, July 12, in a special six-lane bowling arena installed in an exhibition hall at Makuhari-Messe, a convention center outside Tokyo (pictured right).

    The Organizing Committee has chosen the 43-foot Tokyo oil pattern, one of the long patterns from the World Bowling bank of patterns. The Tokyo pattern will be used in all three tournament venues.

    In addition the OC has announced that bowlers can register maximum six bowling balls during the whole tournament and cannot change or add balls. Only registered balls are allowed.

    For the latest information, please click here or on the tournament logo on the right bar.

    WBTLogo_small.jpg The 2015 World Bowling Tour, which actually got underway in November 2014, currently consists of 20 tournaments in the Middle East (8), United States (7), Asia (3) and Europe (2) including eight "majors" and 12 regular tournaments.

    Players earn ranking points based on how they finish in each event. The current points system is based on a continuous two-year cycle, so some points earned in 2013 and all points from the 2014 and 2015 are added to determine the points list.

    The top three men and top three women in the WBT points list will be invited to compete in the 2015 World Bowling Tour Finals in the beginning of 2016.

    World Bowling provides governance to international bowling and is made up of 134 bowling international federations. For more information on the World Bowling Tour, click here.

     


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