Four off to world youth bowling tourney

Four of the CNMI’s top youth bowlers will fly to Guam this afternoon to participate in the 8th WTBA World Youth Tenpin Bowling Championship to be held at the Central Lanes Bowling Centre in Tamuning from August 1 to 8.

Brothers Ruselle and Raymond Zapanta and fellow up-and-coming bowlers Raymond Angeles and Leonard Pangelinan make up the Commonwealth’s lean-and-mean contingent to the youth championship.

The Zapanta brothers are fresh from a stint in the Asian Tenpin Bowling Championship held earlier this month in Bangkok, Thailand. Both have also won their fair share of championship and always seem to land in the top ten in most major bowling tournaments on Saipan.

The brothers have been regulars of the Saipan Bowling Center and Capitol Bowling Center for more than half of their lives. Both also hope to finish at least in the middle of the pack in the youth championship.

Seventeen-year-old Ruselle, an incoming freshman at the Northern Marianas College, brings with him a 180-pinfall average to the 18-and-under competition.

He said he’s just thrilled at facing the top bowlers in his age group in Guam and hopes to be up to the challenge in the tournament.

For his part, younger brother Raymond, who also has an average hovering around 180, says he learned a lot of lessons from the Asian championship and he wants to apply it in the coming tournament.

The 16-year-old said international bowlers have an all-around game perfect in almost all lane conditions. He said he would need to be more patient in judging the weight of the ball and velocity he would use to be successful in the tournament.

The Zapantas are the sons of Ross and Gigi Zapanta.

Angeles, meanwhile, said he’s not expecting much in Guam but assured everyone that he will try to do his best in the tournament. The 15-year-old Mount Carmel High School student said he would try to improve his positioning and power during the youth championship.

Angeles, who has an average of around 170 pinfalls, is the son of Joe and Rita Velarde. He has quite a few top 25 finishes in local tournaments and wishes the trip to the U.S. territory would further improve his skills in the sport. Angeles has been bowling for eight years.

Last but not the least, Pangelinan says he is simply excited to get a chance to compete opposite the best 18-and-under bowlers in the world. The 17-year-old Marianas High School student first picked up a bowling ball when he was just 12 years old.

Like Angeles, he also said he would certainly try to do everything in his power to finish in a respectable position in the tourney. Pangelinan is the son of Paul and Maria Pangelinan. He comes to the youth championship with a 167 average. Pangelinan consistently places in top 20 of the monthly Pepsi King of the Lanes.

The Commonwealth is one of 29 nations sending bowling delegates to the confab. Of the number, only 22 have sent full teams made up of four boys and four girls.

The CNMI joins Brunei, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates as countries with incomplete teams.

The two Zapantas, Angeles, and Pangelinan, meanwhile, are expected to join a total of 116 boys and 88 girls entered in the tournament.

Medals at stake in the youth championship are singles, doubles, Team of Four, All Events and Masters.

The competition starts on Sunday, Aug. 1, with six games in the boys’ singles in Short Oil followed by the girls’ singles on the same surface on Monday, Aug. 2. Girls’ doubles on Long Oil kicks off on Tuesday, Aug. 3, followed by boys’ doubles on Long Oil on Wednesday, Aug. 4.

The tournament shifts to Team of Four events for the boys and girls the next two days with players competing on both Short and Long Oil conditions. The top 16 in the 18-game All Events then duke it out in the Masters Finals to be staged in the last two days of the championship.

The top three at the end of the Masters will then battle it out in the stepladder finals to determine the champion.