By Lucas Wiseman
USBC Communications
WATCH: Semifinals | Final | Medal ceremony
MUNICH, Germany - The Team USA pairing of Patrick Allen and Rhino Page earned an unexpected bronze medal Monday night at the 2010 World Tenpin Bowling Association World Men's Championships.
After competing on the opening of five qualifying squads, Allen and Page didn't think their qualifying score would be high enough to advance to the semifinals as one of the top four teams. Instead, they slide into the semifinals as the fourth seed.
In the semifinals, the Americans fell to the eventual gold medalists, Sweden, 449-373. The Swedes went on to win the title with a 398-379 victory over Malaysia.
"We feel fortunate that we made it into the semifinals, but as a team we don't feel like we bowled as well as we should have on this pattern," Allen said. "The bottom line is that we aren't here to win bronze medals. Great bowlers are able to take advantage of situations like this, and we didn't get it done today."
Team USA fell behind early in the semifinal against Sweden and was unable to recover as Allen shot 209 and Page had 164. Mathias Arup had 253 for Sweden, while Martin Paulsson shot 196 in the winning effort.
In the championship match, the Swedes edged past the Malaysians after Nur Aiman left a 4-6-7-10 split in the final frame. That setup Arup to mark in the final frame for the title, and he delivered a perfect strike to lock it up.
Paulsson led the Swedes in the gold-medal match with 221, while Arup shot 177. Aiman shot 192 for Malaysia, and Alex Liew had 187.
Malaysia advanced to the championship match with a 429-325 victory over Germany's Bodo Konieczny and Jens Nickel. The Germans and Americans shared the bronze medal with the semifinals losses.
The Team USA pairing of Bill O'Neill and Chris Barnes finished just outside of medal contention, taking fifth place, 11 pins out of the semifinals. Wes Malott and Tommy Jones took 17th place, missing the semifinals by 68 pins.
Attention now shifts to the trios event, which begins with two days of three-game qualifying blocks on Tuesday. Team USA's Page, Allen and Malott will team up, while O'Neill, Barnes and Jones will join forces.
BowlingDigital.com will provide live streaming of the semifinals and finals of each event and coverage can also be viewed live on BOWL.com. The trios semifinals and final are scheduled to begin on Wednesday at 2 p.m. Eastern.
The 2010 WTBA World Men's Championships features 356 competitors from 65 countries competing for medals in six events - five-player team, trios, doubles, singles, all-events and Masters match play.
2010 WTBA WORLD MEN'S CHAMPIONSHIPS
At Dream Bowl Palace, Munich, Germany
Monday's Results
CHAMPIONSHIP
(Winner earns gold, loser gets silver)
(1) Martin Paulsson/Mathias Arup, Sweden def. (2) Alex Liew/Nor Aiman, Malaysia, 398-379
SEMIFINALS
(Winners advance, losers tie for bronze)
(1) Martin Paulsson/Mathias Arup, Sweden def. (4) Patrick Allen/Rhino Page, United States, 449-373
(2) Alex Liew/Nor Aiman, Malaysia def. (3) Bobo Konieczny/Jens Nickel, Germany, 429-325
QUALIFYING
(Top 10, six games)
1, Martin Paulsson/Mathias Arup, Sweden, 2,621. 2, Alex Liew/Nur Aiman, Malaysia, 2,568. 3, Bodo Konieczny/Jens Nickel, Germany, 2,514. 4, Patrick Allen/Rhino Page, United States, 2,513. 5, Bill O'Neill/Chris Barnes, United States, 2,505. 6, Choi Yong-Kyu/Kim Tae-Young, Korea, 2,498. 7, Anders Lousdal/Frederick Ohrgaard, Denmark, 2,497. 8, Syafiq Ridhwa/Aaron Kong, Malaysia, 2,497. 9, Cho Young-Seon/Jang Dong-Chul, Korea, 2,493. 10, Cheuk Yin Mak/Wu Siu Hong, Hong Kong, 2,484.
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