Rivera, Del Rosario advance in World Cup

LAS VEGAS, Nevada – The Philippines’ Biboy Rivera and Liza del Rosario completed their 24-game series with 5107 and 4814, respectively, to advance to the next round of the QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup international finals yesterday at Sam’s Town, Las Vegas here.

Former FIQ world champion Rivera finished eighth out of 86 participants in the men’s division while Del Rosario, one of Asia’s best, checked in 14th in the women’s competition.

The top 24 men and top 24 women will play eight more games tomorrow morning for the top eight in both divisions and the round robin.  After the head-to-head round-robin matches, the top three finishers will figure in knockout matches to determine this year’s champions.

Defending champion Ciara Guerrero moved up to the top of the leaderboard with 5177, a 215.71, average, ahead of Mexico’s Sandra Gongora (5158) and the US’ Shannon Pluhowsky (5134).

The day’s biggest scores in the women’s event were 259 (high game) by Russia’s Maria Bulanova, high sets of 1741 by Chiara, 1740 by Singapore’s Geraldine Ng Su Yi and 1738 by Bulanova.

Belgium’s Catherine Durieux rolleds a 204 game to make the 24th spot.  She said afterwards: “I was pretty sure I had made it but you never know until the scores go up.”