First block leader in the five-player team event at the Women's World Championships
L-R Laura Beuthner, Lisa Kabowski, Nadine Geissler, Patricia Luoto, Birgit Pöppler and Martina Schütz of Germany .

 

Laura Beuthner, Martina Schütz, Patricia Luoto, Nadine Geissler and Birgit Pöppler of Germany took the first round lead in the five-player team event at Women's World Championships in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, as the teams from 22 countries have completed the first block on long oil (43 ft. Tokyo) Friday morning at Khalifa International Bowling Center.

The typical suspects for the prestigious team medals, Colombia, Sweden, Malaysia, defending champion Korea, Singapore, Philippines, Germany, United States, Indonesia and Venezuela positioned themselves in the top 10 right from the beginning of the event. They all know what's at stake in Saturday's finale.

Anggie Ramirez, Andrea Ruiz, Maria J. Rodriguez, Rocio Restrepo and Clara J. Guerrero of Colombia took a one-pin lead after an 1110 opening game over Rebecka Larsen, Joline Persson Planefors, Nina Flack, Victoria Johansson and Jenny Wegner of Sweden (right).

After starting the event with 1059, the Germans posted a huge 1197 second game to leap from seventh to first place on 2256. They struggled early in game three but closed out strong to add 1102 and to lead the event at the halfway point with 3358 total and an average of 223.87.

Beuthner led the team with 714 and was followed by Pöppler (687), Schütz (683), Geissler (671) and Luoto (603).

Trailing by Germany by 54 pins was were the Swedish fivesome, who posted games of 1109, 1124 and 1071 to finish the round in second place with 3304 total (220.27 average).

Third place belonged to Cherie Tan, Joey Yeo, Shayna Ng, New Hui Fen and Jazreel Tan of Singapore (left), who had games of 1077, 1055 and 1141 for 3273 (218.20). The Singaporeans have made the medal round in each of the previous events (Singles, Trios and Doubles), but they are still looking to win their first gold medal.

Rounding out the top 4, who will advance to the medal round at the end of the preliminaries were Shannon Pluhowsky, Stefanie Johnson, Kelly Kulick, Danielle McEwan and Liz Johnson, United States (right), all of whom are past or current world champions.

The Americans posted scores of 1053, 1108 and 1103 to beat out defending champion Korea for the fourth place by 17 pins 3264 to 3247. The Koreans, who have won the titles in singles and trios and finished second in doubles, had games of 1081, 1098 and 1068.

Esther Cheah, Natasha Roslan, Syaidatul Afifah, Sin Li Jane and Sharon Koh of Malaysia were sixth with 3207 and were followed by Liza Del Rosario, Dyan Coronacion, Lara Posadas, Krizziah Tabora and Liza Clutario of the Philippines (left) with 3160.

Eighth place Anggie Ramirez, Andrea Ruiz, Maria J. Rodriguez, Rocio Restrepo and Clara J. Guerrero of Colombia are merely 114 pins away from fourth place, making Saturday's second and final round before the cut to the top four promising to be an extra exciting round.

The second block of the team event will also decide the medals in All-Events (combined scores in Singles, Doubles, Trios and Teams) and the top 24 players, who will advance to the Masters finals, which will conclude the Women's World Championships on Sunday, Dec 13.

With 21 of 24 games in the books, Shayna Ng (pictured right with team mate Cherie Tan, left) from Singapore leads the 147 players from 30 countries in All-Events with 4896 and an average of 233.14. Liz Johnson, USA, is second with 4835, while previous leader Cherie Tan, Singapore, slipped to third place on 4809, immediately followed by singles champion Jeon Eunhee (left) in fourth place with 4802.

All teams and the players from the countries who haven't sent a full team return on Saturday morning at 9 a.m. Gulf Standard Time (GST) for the second block on short oil (36 ft. Los Angeles).

The semi-finals (No. 1 vs. No. 4 and No. 2 vs. No. 3) are scheduled to start at 2 p.m. The winners will bowl for gold and silver in the championship match while the losers will share the bronze medals.