Team USA sweeps singles at Championship of Champions
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - Team USA's John Janawicz and Shannon O'Keefe swept the gold medals in singles Wednesday at the 2008 Pan American Bowling Confederation Championship of the Champions.
Janawicz dominated the field, totaling 3,538 for 16 games, an average of 221, and won the title by more than 240 pins. Venezuela's Arturo Hernandez took the silver with 3,296 and Mark Buffa of Canada won the bronze with 3,248.
Janawicz began the day with a three-pin lead, but it quickly ballooned after he started with games of 226, 234, 242 and 260 before finishing with 193, 257, 234 and 198 on the long-oil pattern.
"Getting off to a good start today was the big thing because I wanted to read the lanes well on the fresh and build off of that," Janawicz said. "If you don't have your angles right, you can shoot a 160 game pretty easy."
O'Keefe had a much closer victory, shooting 3,305 to edge Puerto Rico's Jessica Santiago by just 14 pins. Venezuela's Alicia Marcano took the bronze with 3,271.
"I feel very fortunate to win the gold medal because I opened in the 10th frame in the last three games," said O'Keefe, who also won the singles gold medal at the 2007 Women's World Championships in Monterrey, Mexico. "Even though that part was a little disappointing, I'm still very happy with bringing home another gold medal."
O'Keefe started the day with games of 198, 202, 219, 216 and 204, but trailed Marcano by 11 pins heading into the final three games. O'Keefe closed with 233, 174 and 192 to edge out Santiago, who closed with a 225 game.
The tournament now turns to eight games of mixed doubles action Thursday. The top eight in singles and top eight mixed doubles teams will then compete in the Masters on Friday.
After each player has completed the 16 games in singles and eight games in mixed doubles, the combined total of 48 games is used to rank the countries to determine the top eight from the American Zone which will advance to the 2009 World Games in China.
By Lucas Wiseman - USBC Communications