Bowling News
Team USA Members Selected For Upcoming 2021 International Events
The members of Team USA will be back on the road this fall, and they're headed to a pair of events in Colombia and the United Arab Emirates.
ARLINGTON, Texas – The first will send the team back to a familiar venue, Bolera Departamental in Cali, Colombia, for the 2021 PANAM Bowling Adult Championships from Oct. 14-23.
The other is the 2021 International Bowling Federation World Championships, a three-tournament extravaganza that will bring the best bowlers in the world to the Dubai International Bowling Center in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in November.
The IBF Super World Championships (men and women) will take place Nov. 6-15 and will be followed by the IBF Para Bowling World Championships and IBF Masters (formerly Senior) World Championships.
In all, 18 players from the 2021 Team USA roster will take to the friendly skies for the PANAM Bowling event and the IBF Super World Championships, while representatives for the subsequent competitions will be selected through a resume process that concluded Sept. 6.
“We’re excited for these upcoming opportunities and the chance to be back on the lanes representing the United States and competing for medals against the best bowlers from across the world,” said Team USA head coach Bryan O’Keefe. “There may not have been any international events for a while, but the team members have worked hard in the gym and in the bowling center to make sure they’re strong and sharp.”
O’Keefe will be joined in Colombia by six men and six women for singles, doubles, trios and five-player team competition.
The 20-lane center hosted the same combined event in 2016, before the women headed to the Dominican Republic in 2018 and the men competed in Peru in 2019.
Team USA representatives on the men’s side will be Andrew Anderson, Cameron Crowe, Nick Pate, Kristopher Prather, Matt Russo and Kyle Sherman. The women’s roster will include Julia Bond, Sydney Brummett, Breanna Clemmer, Bryanna Coté, Liz Kuhlkin and Gazmine Mason.
Competitors in Cali will be making the most of their visit, as the scores also will be used for this year’s edition of the PANAM Bowling Champion of Champions event and in qualifying for the 2022 IBF World Cup and 2022 World Games.
At the 2018 Champion of Champions event in Rio De Janeiro, the United States earned five of a possible eight gold medals, including four from Russo in his Team USA debut.
This time, those selected for the Champion of Champions will be bowling to earn their nation a spot in the World Games, which will take place in Birmingham, Alabama, in July 2022.
The two men and two women whose scores will be used for the 2021 Champion of Champions will be determined before the start of competition in Cali, and their combined scores (separate for men and women) will be used to determine the four men’s teams and four women’s teams that will represent PANAM Bowling in Birmingham.
Total pinfall for all six bowlers, in their respective gender classifications, will determine the four men’s countries and four women’s countries that will head to the 2022 IBF World Cup.
The storied World Cup previously featured one man and one woman from each country, but a change to the format will allow more competitors to become part of a tradition that spans more than five decades. There may be additional opportunities later for more countries to qualify.
A new format for the World Championships will include four men and four women from each country, and they’ll compete for medals in singles, doubles, trios, team and mixed team. Awards also will be given for each gender’s Most Valuable Athlete (formerly all-events) and for the Most Valuable Federation, using the combined scores for all eight players.
The list of men selected to represent Team USA at the World Championships includes Anderson, Jakob Butturff, AJ Johnson and Prather. Butturff and Johnson helped Team USA to the team gold medal at the 2017 World Championships, while Anderson was a trios gold medalist at the 2018 World Men’s Championships.
The women’s team will include Kelly Kulick, Danielle McEwan, Missy Parkin and Jordan Richard. All four have stood on the top step of the medal podium at the World Championships.
Team USA representatives for the Para Bowling World Championships and IBF Masters World Championships will be announced later in the month.
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