The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

NATIONAL bowling champions Sonith Lockhart and Driskell Rolle both fell short of advancing to the top 24 round of the QubcaAMF Bowling World Cup in Krasnoyarsk, Russia.

The duo fell short in their respective bid in the men and women’s qualifying round of four six-game blocs that wrapped up on Wednesday at the 32-lane Sibiryak centre that is part of the ‘World Class’ fitness and Hilton hotel complex.

Lockhart, who had predicted that he would return with a medal, ended up dropping all the way to 39th on the list of 74 competitors. He finished with a high game of 279 to post a total of 5,212 pinfalls for an average of 217.17. It was Lockhart’s fourth trip to the tournament that features the top bowler from each country represented.

Meanwhile in her debut, Rolle was unable to move from 45th spot out of her field of 64. She had a final high game of 211 for a 4,400 total and an average of 183.33.

Peter Hellstr�m from Sweden led from day one to take the top spot going into the quarter-final today with a total of 5,892. He was followed by Belgium’s Mats Maggi 5,861 and Russia’s Alexei Parshukov with 5,836. Or Aviram of Israel was fourth with 5,778 and Guy Caminsky of South Africa rounded out the top five with 5,752.

The cut for the top 24 was made at 5,465, an average of 222.71, with William Ching of Venezuela going through and Sami Lampo from Finland missing out. The overall average for all the men was 214.46.

On the ladies’ side, Caroline Lagrange of Canada topped the field with 5,956. She and Marie Lourdes Aries of the Philippines, had the only perfect 300 games for the women.

Aumi Guerr of the Dominican Republic sat in second with 5,751, American Danielle McEwan was third with 5,649, Cherie Tan of Singapore was fourth with 5,605 and Lourdes Aries rounded out the top five with 5,563.

The cut for the top 24 fell at 5,002 (a 208.42 average) with Nataliya Shcherbinina of the Ukraine just making it through ahead of Cristina Sanz of Catalonia who shot 1,301 today but it was not enough and she finishes in 25th on 4,967. That is still the best result ever for a Catalonian woman.

Three other countries achieved their best ever results in the women’s section by making the top 24: Aruba (Thashaina Seraus), Romania (Luminita Farkas Bucin) and Turkey (Gulhan Aksular).

The overall average for the 64 women in the tournament was 196.96, six pins a game up on last year.

Lockhart and Rolle, by the way, were the only two participants from an English-speaking country in the Caribbean.

The top eight players from today’s round will advance to the final eight on Saturday. From that round, the finalists will be determined as the week long tournament comes to a close. The players are scheduled to depart Russia on Sunday.