At the Bowling World Men's Championships in Munich, Germany, Team USA is off to a strong start through the first two events, with a Gold and Bronze in singles, and a Bronze in doubles, and currently competing in trios competition aiming to earn 2 more additional medals.
Team USA's Bill O'Neill got things going by the singles event with a 244-202 over Korea's Bok-Eum Choi. After just squeaking into the finals by 4 pins with a 1372 6-game qualifying score, O'Neill defeated top seed Dominic Barrett of England 187-170 to get the chance for Gold. Local resident Chris Barnes of Double Oak, Texas earned a Bronze medal along with Barrett after qualifying 3rd with a 1375 total, but falling in the semi-finals to Choi, 217-191. Fellow Team USA members Wes Malott, Tommy Jones, Patrick Allen, and Rhino Page failed to qualify for the singles finals.
In doubles competition, Allen and Page advance to the finals after 6 games of qualifying in 4th position with a 2513 total, just 11 pins ahead of teammates O'Neill and Barnes, meaning they were matched up with top qualifiers Mathias Arup and Martin Paulsson of Sweden. They were defeated 449-373 in the 1-game semi-final match, earning them a share of the Bronze Medal along with Germany's Jens Nickel and Bodo Konieczny, and Team USA's 3rd overall to that point. Alex Kien Liang Liew and Muhamad Nur Aiman of Malaysia earned the Silver Medal after being defeated by Arup and Paulsson in the finals.
All the bowlers are currently competing in trios competition, with Barnes, O'Neill and Jones teaming up and Allen, Page, and Malott forming the other half of Team USA. All teams bowl 2 separate 3-game blocks, in which the top 4 teams also cut to the finals, and medals.
After early competition through 2 of 3 squads, United States 1, with Allen, Page, and Malott are in 3rd with a 1930 total, and United States 2 is currently 8th with an 1885 total, so the 2nd block action is sure to be exciting, with both Team USA teams having a good shot at advancing.
A side note is that Tommy Jones aggravated a recent hip injury during doubles competition, but is doing all he can to continue competing, and help his team to more medals.
Also going on is the event wide All-Events in which scores from all 4 events, singles, doubles, trios and team are added up to determine Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals. The top 16 athletes also qualify for the Masters competition. Through 15 of 24 games of the 3rd, Team USA's Bill O'Neill leads All-Events with a 3291 total, ahead of teammate Chris Barnes with a 3246. Allen sits 6th with a 3225, Malott 13th with 3162, all in good position to qualify for Masters.
Jones and Page are currently 42nd and 52nd, respectively with totals of 3029, and 3004, both with work to do if they are to advance.
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