Adam Cairns (pictured left), England, won the first gold medal in the Boys division at the 11th World Youth Championships in Finland when he defeated Sam Cooley, Australia, 210-139, to claim the title in Boys Singles.

Cairns was tied with Christian Birlinger, Germany, after the six-game preliminaries at 1343 (223.83 average) and earned the last place for the playoffs due to the higher last game, 233 to 159.

Cairns took full advantage and eliminated top seeded Park Jong-Woo, Korea, in the semifinal, 246-214. Park led the field of 146 players from 46 countries on short oil lane conditioning with 1447 six-game total (241.17) including the highest 3-game set of 751.

Park outaveraged his nearest competitor Cooley by more than 11 pins. The Aussie flew past No. 3 seed, Francois Lavoie, Canada, in the other semifinal, 211-158.

L-R Cooley, world youth champion Cairns, Lavoie and Park.

In the championship match, Cairns raced out to an early lead and never looked back to give England its seventh gold medal in the 11th World Youth Championships. Cooley received the silver medal while Park and Lavoie shared the bronze medal.

Syimir Abdul Razak of Malaysia, who finished in 48th place with 1216, had the tournament's first 300 game and the third in the history of the World Youth Championships in the final game of his qualifying block.

Tommy Jones, United States, now a PBA super star, accomplished the feat in 1996 and Mubarak Al-Muraikhi,, Qatar, was the second player in 1998.

The boys are done for today and will return on Wednesday for the Boys Doubles. Action shifts to Girls Doubles on Tuesday with the semifinals scheduled to begin at 3.30 pm CET. The United States Bowling Congress is working in cooperation with the Finnish Bowling Federation to provide live video streaming of the semifinals and finals of each event.