Gye Min-Young (pictured left), Korea, widened her lead to 151 pins in the Round of 24 at the 46th QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup on Friday morning. Gye added 1784 pins to her qualifying total to lead the top 8 women into round robin match play with 5340 pinfall total or an average of 222.50.

Gye started the eight-game block with 211, 216, 223, 244, 208 and 216. The Korean, a two-time gold medalist in the 2008 Asian Championships (Trios, Team) then posted a 188, her lowest game of the entire tournament thus far, but rebounded with a huge 278 for 1784 or an average of 223.

Aumi Guerra (above right), Dominican Republic, maintained her second place with a 1747 series (218.38) and 5189 pinfall total.

Trailing Guerra by 120 pins to sit in third place was former PWBA star Carolyn Dorin-Ballard (left), United States, with 5069. Dorin-Ballard used a 1759 series (219.88) including high games of 255 and 277 to leap from ninth place into the top 3.

Fiona Banks (right), England, is the best European woman and one of two who survived the second cut in fourth place with 5044.

Places 5-7 belonged to Asian bowlers. Apple Posadas (left), Philippines is fifth with 5029 followed by Daphne Tan (right), Singapore in sixth with 4989 and Wendy Chai (below left), Malaysia in sixth with 4977.

Five players battled it out for the eighth and last spot to advance to round robin match play. Diana Zavjalova (below right), Latvia (4748), Vanessa Timter, Germany (-11), Helén Johnsson, Sweden (-28), Natsumi Koizumi, Japan (-36) and 2008 World Cup champion Ann-Maree Putney, Australia (-74).

Putney mad a late run with a 247 game and overtook Timter (132), Johnsson (160) and Koizumi (184), who all suffered sub-par games, but the young Latvian, who studies in Florida, closed things out with a solid 210 to book her spot in the Round of 8. Zavjalova finished with 4958 total and an average of 206.58. Putney had to settle for ninth place with 4921.

Record 167 players (91 men and record 76 women) from 92 countries participated in the qualifying of the 46th QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup. Men and women bowled 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 .

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After a delay on Tuesday due to structural problems with the roof of the bowling center, the preliminaries consisted of 3 blocks, two of 5 games and one of 6 games, with the top 24 men and the top 24 women (pictured left, click on the image to enlarge it) after 16 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 3 men and the top 3 women after 32 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.