Birgit Pöppler averages 236 to win women's qualifying at Bowling World Open

    07/11/15

    2015 World Bowling Tour #13

    Germany leads the top 33 players representing 16 countries into to the semi-finals scheduled to start at 8 p.m. JST

    2015WBOBirgitPoppler2.jpg2015WBOSyaidatulAfifah2.jpgGerman national team member Birgit Pöppler (pictured left) averaged 236 for five games to win the women's qualifying at the World Bowling Tour's Bowling World Open Saturday afternoon at Round1 Minamisuma bowling center in Tokyo, Japan, and to lead the top 33 into the semi-finals this evening at 8 p.m.

    Pöppler, the 2012 European Bowling Tour women's point ranking leader, rolled games of 250, 213, 278, 227 and 212 on the "Tokyo" lane conditioning pattern to finish atop the 110-player leaderboard with 1180 pinfall total.

    2015WBOByulHan.jpg2015WBODanniHopcroft.jpgSyaidatul Afifah (above right) of Malaysia, who found herself in 37th place after games of 193 and 218, closed with 255 and back-to-back 247 to make the cut in second place with 1160 (232 average).

    Byul Han (left) of Korea was just two pins behind in third place with 1158, including a high game of 278.

    Rounding out the top 4 who will survive the next cut was Danni Hopcroft (right) of England ´with 1144.

    2015WBOKarenMarcano.jpg2015WBOKellyKulick2.jpg One pin off the pace for the top 4 was Venezuelan (left) standout Karen Marcano (left) with 1143 boosted by a first game of 277.

    Kelly Kulick (right), United States, who made sports history by winning the 2010 PBA Tournament of Champions to become the first woman ever to win a PBA Tour event, sits in sixth place with 1121, followed by Han Sol, Korea, in seventh place with 1112.

    Mari Kimura, who started qualifying with a near-perfect 299 game, was the best player from the host country Japan in eight place with 1102.

    2015WBODariaKovalova.jpg2015WBOSinLiJane.jpgRounding out the top 10 were European champion and collegiate standout Daria Kovalova (left) of Ukraine and Singapore's Joey Yeo, both on 1099. Tiebreaker was the lower difference between the lowest and highest game, 93 to 116 in Kovalova's favor.

    Malaysia's Sin Li Jane (right) beat out Jeon Eunhee, Korea, and Ida Andersson, Sweden, for the 33rd and last spot to advance to the semi-finals by just one and two pins, with 1045 or an average of 209.00.

    Sixteen out of 50 countries will be represented in the semi-finals which will take place simultaneously with the men slated for 8 p.m. Japan Standard Time (JST). The qualifying pinfall carries over into the three-game round. The top four with the highest eight-game total advance to the finals on Sunday.

    Korea (6), the host country Japan, Singapore, United States (all 4), Malaysia (3) and England (2) are the countries who have multiple players in the women's Round of 33. Other countries represented are Australia, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Germany, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Ukraine and Venezuela.

    Photos courtesy of Max Bulanov and Hero Noda.

    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 were 110 spots in each division available for the qualifying of the main event which were filled with 20 players from the Japanese preliminaries, 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 featured 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.

     


    Related Articles


    Dom Barrett, Bill O'Neill shoot 300 to lead men's qualifying at Bowling World Open
    Jo Namyi, Lee Nahyun win international preliminaries at Bowling World Open
    Korean bowlers dominate international preliminaries on opening day at World Bowling Open
    World Bowling Tour commences with inaugural Bowling World Open in Tokyo, Japan
    Inaugural Bowling World Open to be contested on "Tokyo" lane conditioning pattern
    Registration for Bowling World Open is open
    World Bowling Tour welcomes Tokyo to its list of major events in 2015
    2015 World Bowling Tour - Schedule, Champions, Men's and Women's Ranking Winners
    2015 WBT Point Rankings - Men and Women

     


    2015 Bowling World Open - Women's Qualifying


    Top 33 advance to the semi-finals