Top Canadian Lawn Bowlers Set to Face Off at National Championship

Bowls Canada Boulingrin – The best lawn bowlers in Canada will be competing for six national titles starting Monday, August 15th at the Canadian Lawn Bowls Championships in Edmonton, Alberta. The competition runs through to Saturday, August 20th at the Commonwealth Lawn Bowling Club located at 11420-139th Street in Edmonton.

 

Featured events at the Canadian Championships are men’s and women’s pairs, triples, and fours. 180 competitors representing nine different provinces will play a round robin tournament in hopes of qualifying for Saturday’s finals. With many returning champions in the field, the competition is expected to be fierce.

 

Bowls is an exciting strategic game where the conditions can change with every roll of the bowl. Athletes at this event range in age across multiple decades with Carter Watson of Regina (SK) representing one of the youngest at just 17 years of age. Watson is playing on a fours team with his older brother Brandon (20 years of age), Bo Kos, and former World Pairs Champion (2004) Keith Roney. The Watson brothers are no stranger to top level competition. Carter and Brandon just earned spots on the Canadian Youth Development team with their respective performances at the Canadian Junior Championships and Canadian Under 25 Championships hosted in early August in North Vancouver, BC.

 

Many of Canada’s top bowlers will be playing in Edmonton including Calgary native Pat Bird. Bird has represented Canada at multiple international events and will be heading to Hong Kong in November for a prestigious international pairs tournament. Other top bowlers include 2016 World Bowls team members Shirley Fitzpatrick-Wong (Winnipeg, MB), Jackie Foster (Bridgetown, NS), Steven Santana (North Vancouver, BC), Ryan Stadnyk (Niagara Falls, ON), Cameron LeFresne (Enfield, NS), and Steve McKerihen (Toronto, ON).

 

The first bowls are scheduled to roll on Monday August 15th at 10:30 am MDT and will continue throughout the week until approximately 6:00pm (local) each day. The medal games for the men will take place on Saturday, August 20th at 9:00am MDT and the women’s medal games are scheduled for 1:30 pm MDT.

 

Spectators are welcome throughout the week to come out and cheer on their local favourites including returning Men’s Triples Champions Roy Riege, Paul Maskell and Keith Johnson. Including these three athletes, host Commonwealth Lawn Bowling Club will lay claim to twenty of the 180 bowler field.

 

Bowls Canada is pleased to host a live streaming broadcast starting Wednesday August 17th. Details on the streaming will be available at as of Tuesday August 16th.

 

To view a full list of competing athletes at the Canadian Championships, please visit: http://www.bowlscanada.com/en/championship/2016champ_canadian.html

 

To stay up to date with results, please visit: http://www.bowlscanada.com/en/championship/2016champ_canadian.html

 

-30-

 

For more information, please contact: Katie Gardner, Communications and Promotions Manager, Bowls Canada Boulingrin kgardner@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.