Nov. 4, 2014
(Editor’s Note: Former Vanderbilt All-American Brittni Hamilton is in Poland as the USA’s lone female representative at the prestigious Bowling World Cup. Her bowling success has allowed her to visit much of the world)
Hi Everyone!
So this is my first blog post coming to you all the way from Wroclaw Poland. First, I will give you a quick background on why exactly I am over here in the first place.
Last January I won bowling’s Team USA Trials in Las Vegas. Winning this prestigious tournament crowned me the National Amateur Bowling Champion, made me a member of Team USA 2014 and it made me the lone female representative from the USA at the 2014 Bowling World Cup. I later found out that this tournament would be occurring in Poland.
I left Newark, NJ this past Thursday night at 8:30 pm on a seven hour flight to Frankfurt, Germany. There I had about a four hour layover until boarding my flight to Wroclaw, where we landed at 2:30 pm local time (8:30 am eastern time).
Once we landed it took some time to get a cab to bring us to the apartment where my parents would be staying. Their apartment, or flat as known around here, is really amazing. It is extremely old and seems to still have the looks of the WWII era.
After doing some unpacking we went exploring the city and found a place to get something to eat. Down the road is the city center, which is this really pretty square in the middle of the city. It is filled with restaurants, shops, apartments, and many, many churches. There are no roads for cars in this area so it is filled with pedestrians walking around enjoying their time outside before the cold weather hits.
The next two days were filled with a lot of walking and more exploring of the city. Each day I also was sure to fit in a short one hour practice session at the bowling center hosting the tournament. This bowling center is a bit different than ones you would normally think of. It is actually located right in the middle of a mall. There are 24 lanes and the area where people can watch is separated from the lanes themselves by a long glass wall. I will be sure to get a picture of exactly what I am talking about so that everyone can see. This will make this tournament a very unique experience as family and fans won’t be able to interact too much with the bowers themselves. The glass wall doesn’t allow much noise to pass through so even though the people watching can see exactly what is going on, they can’t necessarily hear what is going on inside the bowling center itself.
Today (Tuesday) starts the first day of qualifying games for the week. I will bowl four days of qualifying with five games each day. After the 20 games of qualifying there will be a cut to the top 24 bowlers in both the men’s and women’s divisions. On Saturday these 24 bowlers will bowl another eight games before they cut to the top eight bowlers in each division. The finals are Sunday with eight more games by the final 16 before the final cut to the top three bowlers in each division. These finalists will then bowl the stepladder finals to crown the final champion.
I am extremely excited to get this tournament started tonight and show the world who I am. Bowling against almost 90 other countries can be a little intimidating but I am ready for the task and ready to take the crown home. One game at a time, I am going to go out there and do the best I possibly can!
If anyone is interested in following this tournament throughout the week you can go to this link, http://www.qubicaamf.com/World-Cup/Wroclaw-Poland-2014.aspx . Here they will have links to both live streaming and live scoring throughout the entire week. You can also find a link on the page that will have my lane assignments for each game so that you can follow the live scoring.
I just want to thank everyone for all your support! #TeamUSA2014
Until next time,
Brittni
