It took 62 lanes, 318617 matches, 40,000 players, 7,300 teams and 127 consecutive days of play, but the U.S. Bowling Congress Open Championships in the Judson F. Wilson Convention Center of El Paso, Texas has finally come to a close.

The tournament drew players from across the country, who competed for $4 million in total prize money handed out over the course of play. Officials report that six perfect games were bowled, and that the highest series in the tournament was a 793 bowled by Ronnie Sparks, Jr. of Redland, Michigan.

2015 was the first year that El Paso hosted the U.S. Bowling Congress Open Championships, after previously hosting the U.S. Bowling Congress Women’s Championships in 2010. The event generated an estimated $75 million to $100 million dollars for the local economy, as well as three Habitat For Humanity duplexes to be constructed from leftover material used to build the bowling center where the Championships were held.

World Bowling Open Finalists Determined

The first ever Bowling World Open has moved on to its final stages, with just eight players (four women and four men) left in contention. The finalists include four Professional Bowling Association champions, including two members of Team USA.

The finalists for the men’s event are:

• Dom Barrett, England
• Isao Yamamoto, Japan
• Osku Palermaaa, Finland
• Bill O’Neill, USA

For the women’s event, the finalists are:

• Birgit Poppler, Germany
• Kelly Kulick, USA
• Joey Yeo, Singapore
• Karen Marcano, Venezuela

The remaining competitors will play two more sets each, with the final two competitors in the men’s and women’s divisions playing each other in a final match to determine the champion of each category.

The Bowling World Open is being held in Tokyo, where players are competing for a 10 million Yen prize (approximately $81,600 in U.S. dollars) in each division. The event is being organized jointly by World Bowling, the Japan Bowling Congress, and the National Bowling Federation of Japan. The finals for the Open will be broadcast on Japanese TV station TV Tokyo.

Organizers of the Bowling World Open hope to use the event to build up excitement around the sport, in order to further the push for bowling to be included in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. With the selection process for events at the Games underway, the hosts of the Open are betting that the excitement around the event will convince the Japanese board involved in organizing the Games will decide that including bowling on the slate will play well with the home audience. Bowling is an incredibly popular sport in Japan, and one of the criteria for selection is whether or not it will draw interest from viewers. Organizers of the Tokyo Games have also said that they will prioritize sports that can be held in already existing complexes.

Even if you can’t fly to Tokyo, you can still take part in bowling fever. Contact Murrey Bowling today about home bowling alley installation and other bowling supply services today at 310-532-6091.

Sources

• https://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_28471988/national-bowling-tournament-ends-nearly-40k-competed
• https://www.bowl.com/News/NewsDetails.aspx?id=23622324670