Aussie’s set to fire in the finals
The World Junior Championships have arrived at the pointy end of the competition with our Australian contingent well placed to claim international honours.
Five out of six Aussies have qualified for the singles finals whilst two of our Australian mixed pair’s combinations have also advanced to tomorrow’s finals.
Defending World Junior Singles Champion Chloe Stewart has back-to-back world titles in sight after going through her section undefeated.
Our two Australian girls Stewart & Richards went head to head in the final sectional round with the winner gaining a berth directly into the semi and the other into the singles playoff match (1/4 final).
Both girls didn’t disappoint with an exceptional display of bowls; the game went down to the very last bowl with Richards missing by the narrowest of margins to see Chloe prevail 21-20.
Both Renee McPharlin and Kristina Krstic have progressed in the other section in second and third spots respectively; however Krstic will meet Kelly Richards in a do or die quarter-final tomorrow at 12:30pm.
McPharlin will take on Malaysia’s Auni Fathiah Kamis in the other quarter-final with the winner set to meet defending champion Chloe Stewart in the semi.
St Johns Park’s Ben Twist missed out on top spot in his section behind Scotland and will play Izzat Shameer Dzulkeple in the quarter-final with the winner progressing to a semi-final encounter with Scotland’s Kevin Anderson.
The only omission for Australia from the singles competition is defending champion Dylan Fisher who couldn’t bounce back from early round defeats and narrowly miss out on qualifying on a count back.
Fisher will have a chance to claim his second international junior title when he teams up with Chloe Stewart in the mixed pair’s semi-final against the winner of Scotland (1) and New Zealand (2) tomorrow at 3:15pm.
Ben Twist and Kristina Krstic are also straight through to the semi-final and await the winner of New Zealand (1) and Scotland (2).
Renee McPharlin and Kelly Richards were part of composite mixed pair’s sides that were teamed up with males from other countries that did not have a female competitor; unfortunately both were knocked out in sectional play.
First up for Australia tomorrow will be McPharlin, Richards, Krstic and Twist in the Men’s and Women’s Singles playoffs due to kick off at 12:30pm.
Results can be found on the Bowls Australia Facebook and Twitter pages.
Saturday 14th March
9:00am Mixed Pairs Playoffs
12:30pm Men’s and Women’s Singles Playoffs
3:15pm Mixed Pairs Semi-final
Sunday 15th March
9:30am Men’s and Women’s Singles Semi-final
12:30pm Mixed Pairs Final
3:30pm Men’s and Women’s Singles Final