July 29, 2010
(Editor’s Note: United States Junior Amateur Champion and Vanderbilt All-American Brittni Hamilton is competing at the World Junior Championships in Helsinki, Finland with Junior Team USA)
Good Morning from Finland! As most of you are still sleeping or just getting up back in Nashville, it is currently about 4 p.m. here in Helsinki. I have some rare free time this afternoon and thought I should give an update on what has happened the last day and a half.
The boys doubles were yesterday (Wednesday). Craig Hanson and Andrew Koff bowled very well in the morning and were in second place behind Korea after that session. Devin Bidwell and Jake Peters did not bowl until the night squad leaving one squad in between. When we arrived back at the bowling center for our other boys squads we saw that a Malaysia duo knocked them into third with one session to go. Jake and Devin took the lanes in the final squad of the day and also bowled exceptionally well. It was a nail biter. We wanted both of our boys teams to make the medal rounds and, of course, it has to be decided by the last game of qualifying for us to know whether that would happen. Going into the last game our second duo of boys just needed another decent game to make the medal rounds. As they got off to a very good start we knew that they were fine and were going to make the medal round with no problem. But for our other pair that bowled earlier in the day, it was not as smooth sailing. England needed a good last game and they got off to a very hot start. Through five frames of the last game, the English team had only three shots that were not strikes. We were all extremely nervous thinking that they were going to pass our teammates. But after those first few frames things went downhill for England, meaning that both our boys duos made the medal rounds!
We couldn’t have been happier knowing that we had two of the four teams in the final rounds. We were fortunate that the boys didn’t have to bowl each other in the first round meaning that they could only meet in the Gold medal match. Jake and Devin qualified second and had to bowl Malaysia, while Craig and Andrew faced number 1 seeded Korea. The two matches were very low scoring with it coming down to the final frames. When the dust settled it was USA victorious in both matches!! No matter what, USA would be taking home Gold and Silver in the boys doubles!
As a team we could not have been more proud to have USA on our backs during the final match. This was the first time in the tournament history that a country has won Gold and Silver in a single event. Yet another amazing day for the USA! The final match was also a close one with Craig and Andrew pulling out a three pin win for the Gold, leaving Jake and Devin with the Silver.
When the medal ceremony came and the National Anthem played it was an amazing moment for all of us there. I think it is safe to say that we all had goosebumps as we were so excited for what had just happened!
Today (Thursday) was the first day of the team event. The USA girls started our qualifying games this morning. We bowled three games on the short pattern this morning and will bowl three more on the long pattern tomorrow morning. Today went extremely well for us. We are currently in third place after the first three games behind Singapore and Malaysia. Korea is fourth in a tight cluster with just 20 pins separating us. There is a small drop off from to other countries although not very much with three team games left tomorrow. We feel very good about how we performed today and plan to keep the momentum going into tomorrow. Our boys team bowls in just a few hours and we will be leaving the hotel shortly to go cheer them on. I think that is all for now, I plan on bringing some more good news about our USA teams tomorrow!!
Hyvästi alkaen Suomi! (Goodbye from Finland!)