ARLINGTON, Texas - More than a dozen Professional Women's Bowling Association stars are ready to represent their respective countries at the 2015 World Women's Bowling Championships.
The event will be held at the Zayed Sports City's Khalifa International Bowling Centre in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates from Dec. 7-13.
The PWBA members headed to Abu Dhabi includes all six members of Team USA - Kelly Kulick of Union, New Jersey, Liz Johnson of Cheektowaga, New York, Stefanie Johnson of Grand Prairie, Texas, Shannon O'Keefe of O'Fallon, Illinois, Shannon Pluhowsky of Kettering, Ohio, and first-time World Championships participant Danielle McEwan of Stony Point, New York.
Additional PWBA members participating will be Clara Guerrero, Anggie Ramirez, Rocio Restrepo, Maria Jose Rodriguez and Andrea Ruiz from Colombia, Aumi Guerra of the Dominican Republic, Latvia's Diana Zavjalova and Sandra Gongora and Lilia Robles of Mexico.
The top women from 30 countries, 147 competitors in all, will make their way to Abu Dhabi for the first time since 1999, while the city and bowling center provided a memorable experience for competitors and fans at last year's World Bowling Men's Championships.
The opening ceremony for the 2015 World Women's Championships will take place Sunday, Dec. 6 at 6 p.m. Eastern, and competition starts Monday, Dec. 7 with singles at 12 a.m. EDT. The competition will feature six medal events - singles, doubles, trios, team, all-events and Masters match play.
All rounds of the event will be broadcast live on BOWL.com's BowlTV. For a complete schedule, visit BOWL.com/LiveStream.
The last time the best female bowlers in the world met on the global stage was 2013, when a combined World Championships was held at Strike Zone Bowling Center inside Sunset Station in Henderson, Nevada, a suburb of Las Vegas.
At the 2013 tournament, Korea claimed the coveted team title, giving the United States its fourth second-place finish in five World Championships. Team USA did win the team gold medal at the 2011 event in Hong Kong. Korea topped the medal table at the 2013 World Championships with four gold medals, two silver and a bronze.
In 1999, Korea outdistanced Colombia to win the team event, while the United States finished third. Korea also won trios. Team USA's Kulick, who will be participating again in 2015, earned the singles gold medal, while the doubles, all-events and Masters titles all went to Australia.
The countries scheduled to participate include: Australia, Bahamas, Canada, China, Chinese Taipei, Colombia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, England, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Korea, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, Venezuela and the host country United Arab Emirates.
For more information on the World Women's Championships, visit the official website of the event at 2015wwc.worldbowling.org.
