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19/05/2009 - Rick Wright - Atlantic Championships Results |
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Johannesburg what was that all about???
It's all over now and all the bowlers have
returned to their countries, some perhaps happier than others
with the outcome of the competition.
As a club Bowler you may well be wondering why
the Spanish teams were in Johannesburg. They were taking part
in the Atlantic Championships, some may remember it as the
Atlantic Rim and as a women's only competition. It is a biennial
competition and the format was changed to introduce a men's
section at the 2007 event. It is now designated as a
major qualifying event for the World Championships.
The World Championships take place every 4 years
with the next one taking place in Australia in 2012. Of the 24
men's and 24 women's teams that contest the World event 12 Men's
and 12 Women's teams are already qualified courtesy of their
final placing in the last World Championships in New Zealand.
That leaves a further 12 places in each up for grabs, of these 5
were available for the men and 4 for the women at the Atlantic
Championships. The remaining 7 and 8 places respectively are
allocated to the Asian Pacific Championships and the African
states championships.
So back to Johannesburg, In the men's competition
10 of the 16 teams taking part were playing for the 5
qualifying slots while in the women's it was 7 of the 14 teams
playing for the 4 available places. Some of the best teams in
the world were in the competition, although not all needed to
qualify. Spain still had to play them all in the group
stage. Both our teams came up against England, Wales, Scotland
and Ireland as well as USA, Canada, Jersey, Guernsey, Portugal,
Namibia and the host nation South Africa. At the end of two
weeks very intensive bowling our Ladies team managed to qualify
for 2012 in Oz but our Men were not as fortunate. Well done all
concerned and congratulations Ladies. The
squad has once again represented us well on the International
stage against some of the best in the World.
So there you are, in case you did not know,
(and many didn't) that is what Johannesburg May 2009 was
all about.
Rick Wright.
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