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Born | [1] | 13 February 1972||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Country | Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Bowling | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Achievements and titles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
World finals |
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National finals | [2] Championship Titles 2002 Greater Harrisburg Open Contents | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Cara Honeychurch of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia is a female world champion tenpin bowler. She won the AMF Bowling World Cup in 1996 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and voted Bowler of the Year by the World Bowling Writers the same year. She was inducted to the World Bowling Writers' International Hall of Fame in 1998.
For 35 years, she was a champion in the sport of tenpin bowling in Australia, from representing Australia as an athlete beginning in 1989 to serving as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Tenpin Bowling Australia (TBA) for a decade, until 2020.
Honeychurch is a left-hander bowler who was known [4] for her pinpoint accuracy and finesse, and her accuracy and speed control helped her win numerous titles, particularly in open events. From 1989 until 1998, Honeychurch was a nine-time Australian representative, [5] and she went on to become one of the most successful Australian bowlers in history. [4]
Honeychurch has a long list of domestic successes, including three Australian Masters championships, the NSW Open, three VIC150 victories, and five Adelaide Women's Cup winners. Her accomplishments in open events, when she competed against some of the country's best male competitors, stand out. She won her first of three open titles in 1997, the South Australian Cup. [6] [4]
The South Pacific Classic was qualifier for the Bowling World Cup. Honeychurch won the competition four times, however she only competed in the BWC twice. She made her debut in 1994, finishing third, before returning in 1996 to win the World Cup. She was the second Australian to win the event.
In the Asian Youth, Asian Championships, [7] World Youth, and World Championships, she won 23 medals: eleven gold medals, nine silver medals, and three bronze medals. In the 1997 World Games she won the silver medal in Mixed Doubles with Andrew Frawley. [8] She won three gold medals at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, in the singles, doubles, and mixed doubles events. [9] [10]
Honeychurch was named Asian Bowler of the Year in 1994 and 1995 and World Bowling Writers Bowler of the Year in 1996 and 1998 [11] for her several victories in international tournaments. [12]
Bowling made appearances at the Olympics in 1988 and 1996, but not as part of the official sports events. It was added as a demonstration sport by the IOC to show off the sport to the rest of the world and to be considered for inclusion in future Games. The Fédération Internationale des Quilleurs (FIQ) Atlanta Bowling Challenge [13] was held on Georgia Institute of Technology's student union lanes during the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games. Cara Honeychurch took the title in this competition. [11]
She turned professional before the 1999 World Championships and moved to the United States, where the sport is shown on national television and over 80 tournaments are held each year. On the Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) Tour, Honeychurch made an outstanding debut. In her debut year as a professional, she dominated the season averages and finished second on the money earning rankings. She made two appearances on television right away, one for a title, one for a broadcast 300-game, [11] [14] and another for another 300-game the following week. [6]
In 2000, the Australian won two more titles, capturing the PWBA Rookie of the Year award. She added four titles in 2001, and the final of her eight wins in 2002. After eight events, the PWBA Tour ended in 2003.
She returned to the PWBA Tour when it was re-launched in 2015 by the United States Bowling Congress (USBC) and Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America (BPAA) She won the United States Bowling Congress Women's Challenge in October 2006, defeating Clara Guerrero, the 2005 World Ranking Masters winner, in the final. [15] [ citation needed ]
In 2022, she was inducted into Sport Australia Hall of Fame. [16]
Rafael "Paeng" Villareal Nepomuceno Filipino bowler and coach who is a six time World bowling champion. He is a World Bowling Hall of Famer and is the first and only bowling athlete to be awarded with the prestigious IOC President's Trophy. He was also named International Bowling Athlete of the Millennium by the FIQ in 1999 and was inducted in the Philippine Sports Hall of Fame in 2018.
Diandra Hyman Asbaty is an American bowler who represented Team USA for fifteen years and was United States Amateur Champion in 1999 and 2006. She is also an official youth bowling spokesperson for the United States Bowling Congress (USBC). She competed in the PBA Women's Series from 2007 to 2010, winning two titles in that span. Asbaty won the 2012 USBC Queens major tournament and continues to compete in PWBA tournaments.
Clara Juliana Guerrero Londoño is a right-handed Colombian ten-pin bowler who has won Colombian championships and multiple international championships. She has been a member of Team Colombia for twenty years, and another half dozen years on Junior Team Colombia. She has one title on the PWBA Tour since the rebirth of the Professional Women's Bowling Association in 2015.
The QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup, previously known as the International Masters and AMF Bowling World Cup, is an annual Ten-pin bowling championship sponsored by QubicaAMF Worldwide, and the largest in bowling in terms of number of participating nations. Each nation chooses one male and/or one female bowler to represent them in the tournament, and in the majority of cases, this is done by running a qualifying tournament, the winners of which are chosen.
Lynda Barnes is one of the world's leading females tenpin bowlers. She is a former member of the PWBA. Bowling as an amateur, Lynda won the 1998 USBC Queens championship, then known as the WIBC Queens. In 1999, Lynda married Chris Barnes, a leading bowler on the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) tour. The couple's twin sons, Troy and Ryan, were born in May 2002. Lynda is a former member of Team USA.
Kelly Kulick is an American professional bowler and sportscaster. She has won ten professional women's bowling titles, one PBA Tour title and a professional mixed doubles title. Kulick is the first woman ever to win a regular Professional Bowlers Association tour title and the only woman to win a major PBA Tour tournament. She is a 14-time member of Team USA. Kulick is currently a pro staff member for Storm Bowling, Vise grips and High 5 gear.
Carolyn Dorin-Ballard is one of the top female ten-pin bowlers in the world. She is a member of the Professional Women's Bowling Association and has bowled in PBA Tournaments as well. She was an exempt competitor in the 2008–09 and 2009-10 PBA Women's Series seasons, which were sponsored by the United States Bowling Congress (USBC). Between the PWBA and the PBA Women's Series, she has won 22 professional titles. Carolyn was a 2007 inductee into the USBC Hall of Fame.
Karen Marcano is a Venezuelan ten-pin bowler. In 2008 she finished first in the Women's World Ranking Masters. In 2009 she won a gold medal at the Pan American Bowling Confederation Championships in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She also won the bronze medal at the masters event of the World Games in 2013 in Colombia.
The World Tenpin Bowling Championships is a global event that invites all countries that are members of International Bowling Federation to participate.
Elizabeth Ann Johnson is an American professional bowler. She first became known as an 11-time winner on the Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) Tour, which included the first of her six U.S. Women's Open titles in 1996, before that organization suspended operations in 2003.
Shalin Zulkifli is a Malaysian professional ten pin bowler. She has played and won various national and international tournaments, and has at various points in her career ranked No. 1 of the professional ten pin bowlers in Malaysia and Asia.
Olivia "Bong" Coo is a Filipino sports administrator and retired professional bowler. She is regarded as the most decorated Filipino athlete. As a member of the Philippine national team, she has amassed a total of 78 medals won in regional and world competitions, 37 of which were gold medals. She is a 4-time world champion and a World Bowling Hall of Fame and Philippine Sports Hall of Fame member.
Shannon O'Keefe is an American female professional bowler and bowling coach now living in Shiloh, Illinois, who has competed in the United States and internationally. She is an 18-time member of Team USA (2005–present) and an eight-time World Champion. She also won the 54th QubicaAMF World Cup in 2018 in Las Vegas. Shannon also won the 2019 Doubles gold medal at the Pan American Games in Peru.
Ann-Maree Putney of New South Wales is a female Australian two-time World Champion ten-pin bowler. In 2009, she was elected to the World Bowling Writers International Bowling Hall of Fame. She competed for Australia for 26 years, winning a total of 30 medals in international competitions such as the World, Asian, and Commonwealth Championships. In 2019, she was inducted into the Tenpin Bowling Australia (TBA) Hall of Fame as well as the Hunter Region Sporting Hall of Fame. Her career spanned 34 years.
Rocío del Pilar Restrepo Lugo is a Colombian ten-pin bowler who now resides in the United States. She bowls professionally on the Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) Tour, and also internationally as a member of Team Colombia.
Danielle McEwan is an American professional ten-pin bowler from Stony Point, New York. She currently competes on the PWBA Tour and in some events on the PBA Tour. She has been a member of Junior Team USA, and is currently a member of Team USA.
Shannon Pluhowsky is an American left-handed ten-pin bowler who competes in the Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) and internationally. Pluhowsky is a 21-time member of Team USA (2001–2021), and a former four-time member of Junior Team USA (2000–2003). Pluhowsky has six professional championships, including major wins at the 2006 USBC Queens in Reno, Nevada, the 2014 BPAA Women's All-Star in Rockford, Illinois, and the 2021 PWBA Tour Championship in Reno, Nevada.
Verity Crawley, is an English professional bowler who competes on the Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) Tour in the United States. She moved from England to the US in 2012 to join the bowling program at Webber International University in Babson Park, Florida. In 2017, she began competing professionally on the PWBA Tour.
Carol Gianotti of Perth is a female Australian ten-pin bowler. She is a member of the Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) Hall of Fame in 2020, the Tenpin Bowling Australia Hall of Fame in 2016 and the United States Bowling Congress (USBC) Hall of Fame in 2011. She has won sixteen professional women's bowling titles before being inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2011. Gianotti had a professional career that lasted from 1989 to 2000. She inspired other Australians and women abroad to join the professional tour.