St Petersburg: In a relentless display of the form that’s earned him some of the most sought after titles at home and overseas this year, Australia’s Jason Belmonte cruised to a comfortable lead going into the final round of qualifying at the 2007 QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup in St Petersburg, Russia.
A stunning 1400 for today’s six games propelled Belmonte into an almost unassailable lead at the end of the first squad, 117 pins clear of USA’s Bill Hoffman who has been in pursuit of the young Aussie for pole position since the first ball was rolled in this year’s event.
This evening’s squad produced an impressive 1389 series by 2005 World Cup champion, Michael Schmidt from Canada while 1988 World Cup champion, Mohammed Khalifa Al-Qubaisi of the UAE stormed home with a 208, 277, 234 final three games to improve to seventh place going into tomorrow’s final 8-game qualifier. Al-Qubaisi holds the record for the most number of appearances by a male bowler at this prestigious event, with his 1988 win remembered by many Australians when he defeated Ian Bradford for the BWC title in Guadalajara, Mexico.
A solid performance throughout the past four days of qualifying by New Zealand’s Jason Waters resulted in a tie for 25th place with Italy’s Maurizio Celli, just missing the cut by a mere 14 pins tonight.
Asked how he felt about leading throughout qualifying, Belmonte replied – “It’s a weird feeling – a lot of people expected this of me, but there are too many really good bowlers here to look too far down the road…”
Play resumes tomorrow at 11.30 am local time when the top 24 bowlers in the men’s division will bowl a further 8 games to determine the cut to the top eight players for the next round.
Results of both men’s and women’s squads are published on the QubicaAMF website – www.qubicaamf.com
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Lynne Clay
A stunning 1400 for today’s six games propelled Belmonte into an almost unassailable lead at the end of the first squad, 117 pins clear of USA’s Bill Hoffman who has been in pursuit of the young Aussie for pole position since the first ball was rolled in this year’s event.
This evening’s squad produced an impressive 1389 series by 2005 World Cup champion, Michael Schmidt from Canada while 1988 World Cup champion, Mohammed Khalifa Al-Qubaisi of the UAE stormed home with a 208, 277, 234 final three games to improve to seventh place going into tomorrow’s final 8-game qualifier. Al-Qubaisi holds the record for the most number of appearances by a male bowler at this prestigious event, with his 1988 win remembered by many Australians when he defeated Ian Bradford for the BWC title in Guadalajara, Mexico.
A solid performance throughout the past four days of qualifying by New Zealand’s Jason Waters resulted in a tie for 25th place with Italy’s Maurizio Celli, just missing the cut by a mere 14 pins tonight.
Asked how he felt about leading throughout qualifying, Belmonte replied – “It’s a weird feeling – a lot of people expected this of me, but there are too many really good bowlers here to look too far down the road…”
Play resumes tomorrow at 11.30 am local time when the top 24 bowlers in the men’s division will bowl a further 8 games to determine the cut to the top eight players for the next round.
Results of both men’s and women’s squads are published on the QubicaAMF website – www.qubicaamf.com
#
Lynne Clay
