World Cup wishes!
The Easter Weekend at ZONE Keon Park saw the annual pilgrimage for our best Australian Bowlers to battle it out for the opportunity to represent their country at this year’s Qubica ZONE BOWLING World Cup in Shanghai, China.
A full field of bowlers attended the day to play out the 32nd Australian Open where Sam Cooley entered as favourite. The first day saw Cooley and Matt Riley go head to head to a fierce pace for the rest of the bowlers. Cooley finished at +245 (230.6 average) and Riley coming in not too far behind at +234 (229.3 average).
Riley qualified in first position day two of the competition with a 235.8 average, including two high games of 289 and 279. Cooley falling short of first place, sitting in third with 95 pins behind and Ralph Harford sat comfortably in second place falling short only 25 pins behind Riley. Day two certainly established an exciting third day of the Australian Open.
By the third day of the competition we saw Cooley take out the title with an impressive display of skill and tenacity. Cooley will now be representing Australia in China later this year in October. We caught up with Cooley after he smashed through the third day to hear what he had to say about the tournament and the future ahead;
“Over the last few years I had lead for majority of the tournament but couldn't go all the way and I'd end up just short. So it felt amazing to finally go all the way and win it this time. I've wanted to go to the World Cup for a very long time, so now that I finally won the spot is a dream come true and a goal ticked off my bucket list. I hope to take full advantage of it, I'm going over to win.”
In the VIC150 tournament we saw 62 ladies from all around Australia battle it out for the opportunity to represent their country in China. It was Bec Whiting who started off the competition with an impressive start with 290 in game 1. Progressing through the 16 games she ended up taking the title as well as the opportunity with an averaged 228.1 after all 16 games.
We caught up with Bec at the end of the event and asked her what it meant to her to win the event and she said “I grew up watching our very own Ann Maree Putney competing at the World Cup and having a lot of success, and wanted to follow in her footsteps and represent my country at the World Cup. Winning this spot has made all the hard work worthwhile and I can't wait to do my country proud”
The team at ZONE Keon Park are very proud to have had the opportunity to sponsor the event and send away Bec Whiting from Victoria and Sam Cooley from New South Wales to this year’s Quibica ZONE BOWLING World Cup. We can’t wait to see the results of these two exceptional bowlers as they fight it out in China for the world title.