Bowls Canada Boulingrin – Canada’s Kelly McKerihen (Toronto, ON) locked in a semi-final berth in Women’s Singles with a first place finish in her section at World Bowls 2016.  With eight wins under her belt, including a victory against 2014 Commonwealth Champion Jo Edwards (NZ), McKerihen’s only loss was a hard fought 20-21 match against Australian ace and defending World Champion Karen Murphy. Murphy and Edwards finished second and third respectively in the pool and advance to sudden-death play-off action.  McKerihen’s decision to relocate to Australia last year has clearly paid off in spades for this young Canadian. Playing out of Melbourne’s Clayton Bowls Club has provided McKerihen with the opportunity to train throughout the year and refine her game on the faster southern hemisphere greens.

McKerihen will face the winner of the play-off round featuring Murphy versus Siti Zalina Ahmad (Malaysia).  Lesley Doig of Scotland also advances directly to the semi-finals with her first place ranking in Section 2. Doig will play the winner of Edwards vs Norfolk Island’s Carmen Anderson.  The winners of each semi-final will advance to the final to play for the gold and silver medals.  The two remaining athletes receive equal bronzes, meaning any way you slice it, McKerihen is guaranteed a medal at this World Bowls Championships.

McKerihen’s semi-final match will be “live-tweeted” by Bowls Canada Boulingrin (@BCBBowls) at 7:00 pm EST. Don’t worry if you don’t have a Twitter account, you can follow the action on the BCB website www.bowlscanada.com

Men’s Pairs Ryan Bester (Hanover, ON) and Steven Santana (North Vancouver, BC) were not able to capitalize on their gold medal win in the qualifying Asia Pacific Championships and finished a disappointing 6^th place in their section. Despite wins against Cyprus (16-12) and South Africa (21-15), the duo were not able to hold off Australian sensations Aaron Wilson and Brett Wilkie in the final round of Day 3 (14-21). Finishing at the top of their pool, the Australians advance directly to the Semi-Final where they will play the winner of Malaysia versus Scotland.  New Zealand’s duo of Shannon McIlroy and Mike Kernaghan advanced directly out of their section and will play the winner of England versus Ireland in the second semi-final. Finishing with a 5-4 record in pairs, Bester and Santana will now turn their attention to preparing for next week’s Singles and Fours competition.

The Canadian Men’s Triples team of Steve McKerihen (Toronto, ON), Cameron Lefresne (Enfield, NS), and Ryan Stadnyk (Niagara Falls, ON) finished 8^th in their pool with a final record of three wins and six losses. The trio finished their sectional play with a win against Wales (17-13) and a loss to Ireland (11-20) and Australia (6-21).  New Zealand advances directly out of the pool to the semi-final round where they will play the winner of Australia versus Scotland.  Finishing at the top of the pool in the second section, England advances directly to the semi-final where they will play the winner of Japan versus Ireland. The Canadian men will be joined by Santana where they will focus on advancing to play-off action in Men’s Fours.

The Women’s Fours team of Leanne Chinery, Shirley Fitzpatrick-Wong (Winnipeg, ON), Jacqueline Foster (Bridgetown, NS), and Pricilla Westlake (Delta, BC) finished at the bottom of their pool with only one win. It would be easy to look at that statistic and write this team off, however, the ranking does not tell the true story of this tenacious team.  Rarely losing a match by more than four points, this team held their own against the World’s best. Almost every match was decided in the final end with top teams having to pull out all the stops for the win.  The gritty resilience displayed this week will serve them well for next week’s action where Westlake and Chinery will be joined by McKerihen to play Triples while Foster and Fitzpatrick-Wong will focus on Pairs.

Stay up to date with Day 2 action by following Bowls Canada on Twitter for live end to end updates during each match.  

For more information on World Bowls Championships please visit: http://www.worldbowls2016.com/Category?Action=View&Category_id=89

The Bowls Canada Boulingrin Media Guide for the 2016 World Championships is available at: http://www.bowlscanada.com/downloads/2016%20worlds/Media%20Kit%20WB-EN.pdf

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For more information, please contact:
Anna Mees, Executive Director
amees@bowlscanada.com  

 About Bowls Canada Boulingrin
Bowls Canada Boulingrin (BCB) is the governing body responsible for lawn bowls in Canada.  The BCB mission is to advance the sport of bowls in Canada.  For more details on Bowls Canada Boulingrin and the sport of lawn bowls, visit www.bowlscanada.com.