Korea, the No. 4 seed in the finals of the girls four-player team event, defeated tournament leader Germany in the semi-finals and went on to beat #3 seeded Japan in the title match, 805-741, to claim the gold medal at the 10th World Youth Championships in Orlando, Fla.

The match between the Koreans Lee Yeon Ji (213), Jun Gwi Ae (216), Lee Hye Mi (173) and Park Mi Ran (203), pictured left, was pretty close after nine frames but three splits in the tenth from the Japanese girls Maki Nakano (188), Rie Totsuka (217), Suzuna Miyagi (167) and Maya Takemata (169) sealed their fate.

In the opening match between Korea and tournament leader Germany with Janine Gabel, Birgit Pöppler, Juliane Rieger and Tina Hulsch, Hulsch needed a double in the tenth frame for the win but could not get the first strike.

In the other semi-final Japan easily won against Singapore's Jasmine Yeong-Nathan, Cherie Tan, Amanda Ng and Jazreel Tan, 821-692. Germany and Singapore shared the bronze medal.

The 10th World Youth Championships will conclude with the Boys and Girls Masters finals on Thursday.

Germany's girls team excelled on the short oil pattern Wednesday morning as they took the lead after six games of preliminaries at the 2008 World Tenpin Bowling Association World Youth Championships.

The Germans had team games of 863, 875 and 876 en route to a six-game total of 5,069 and leads a group of four countries that reached the semifinals, which will be held Wednesday evening.

Tina Hulsch led a balanced scoring effort for Germany as she totaled 1,280 and was followed by Janine Gabel (1,267), Juliane Rieger (1,262) and Birgit Pöppler (1,260).

L-R Team Germany with Janine Gabel, Juliane Rieger, Birgit Poppler and Tina Hulsch.

Singapore took the runner-up position with 5,003. Jazrell Tan led the Singaporeans with 1,298 and was trailed by Cherie Tan (1,288), Jasmine Yeong-Nathan (1,238) and Amanda Ng (1,179).

Japan closed with an 845 game to jump into the No. 3 spot with 4,892, while Korea earned the last spot with 4,888. Malaysia had 809 in the final game, but it wasn't enough as they missed by just four pins.

The host United States struggled to close out the sixth game and finished with a 752 game, giving them a six-game total of 4,796. Their total put the Americans 92 pins back of fourth place as they finished seventh. Overnight leader Canada slipped all the way out of the finals to end up in 9th place with 2,27.

In the girls all-events, Japan's Maki Nakano (pictured right) won the gold medal as she finished the 18 games with 3,921, including a 1,373 total in team event powered by a 279 in Game 4 to start Wednesday's play.

Tannya Roumimper of Indonesia took silver with 3,906 while Colombia's Rocio Restrepo (left picture from left to right) earned the bronze with 3,876.

The top 16 players in all-events advanced to the best-of-five, single-elimination Masters competition on Thursday.