Wendy Chai (l.), Malaysia and Gye Min-Young (r.), Korea, moved to the top of the women's leaderboard in Squad B on the first day of qualifying in the 46th QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup at Bowling de Provence in Toulon, France.

Chai knocked down 1126 pins and averaged 225.20 to overtake the first place. The Asian Tournament of Champions winner had two 190s a 224 game and two 250s. Gye was close behind with 1114 including back-to-back 240s in games 4 and 5.

Squad A leader Holly Fleming, Scotland, slipped to third place with 1090. Aumi Guerra, Dominican Republic (1087), Helén Johnsson, Sweden (1056) and Natsumi Koizumi (below left), Japan (1039) also fell two places to fourth through sixth place.

Vanessa Timter, Germany, was tied with Koizumi but has the lower last game which would break the tie for any position other than 24th (first cut), 8th place (second cut) or 3rd place (third cut). Piritta Kantola (right), Finland, moved into 8th place with 1037.

Rounding out the top ten were Team England's Fiona Banks (1034) and Team USA's Carolyn Dorin-Ballard (1026). Places 11 through 15 were taken by Squad B bowlers.

Sarit Mizrahi, Israel, used high games of 235 and 236 to help grab 11th place with 1021. Patricia de Faria (below left), Venezuela, was just one pin behind in 12th place with 1020. Georgina Papadimitriou, Greece, overtook 13th place with 1018 thanks to a 257 in the final game.

PABCON Trios gold medalist Felicia Wong, Canada, finished her series with 230 and 225 to leap into 14th place with 1014. Sue Abela, Malta, had the highest women's game of 267 in the third game and is tied with Patcharin Torgersen, Norway, for 15th place with 1010.

Just inside the top 24 are Switzerland's Bigi Manico (right) and Austria's Christine Gablek with 984 and 980, respectively. The women return on Tuesday afternoon for the second qualifying block.

Record 167 players (91 men and record 76 women) from 92 countries bowl for the coveted World Cup titles. Men and women bowl in separate divisions each split into two squads.

The total number of participants broke the previous record of 166 set in the 40th BWC in Singapore in 2004. The number of females bowlers broke the previous record of 73 set in Singapore, Caracas (2006) and St. Peters burgh (2007) .

To view the complete list of participating countries and players click here .

All photos will be published on Bowlingdigital's Facebook account.
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The preliminaries consist of 4 blocks of 5 games with the top 24 men and the top 24 women after 20 games advancing to the intermediate round. The top 24 players bowl another 8 games with the pinfall total from the preliminaries being carried forward.

The top 8 men and the top 8 women after 28 games will bowl a further 7 games round robin match play plus 1 game position round total 8 games) with 30 pins bonus per win and 15 for a tie. The top 3 men and the top 3 women after 36 games including bonus pins will determine the champions in a stepladder final in best-of-three games format on Saturday Oct. 23.

Bowlingdigital.com will cover the event live from Bowling de Provence with stories and results after each round, high quality photos and high definition videos commencing Sunday Oct. 17 with the Opening Ceremonies all the way through to the stepladder on Saturday Oct. 3.

Bowlingdigital will also simulcast all broadcast coverage provided by BOWL.com.