McEwan headed to World Cup

4FROM BOWL.COM

With one appearance at the Qubica AMF World Cupunder their belts, Team USA’s John Szczerbinski of North Tonawanda, N.Y., and Danielle McEwan of Stony Point, N.Y., hope to put their experience to good use next week.

Szczerbinski and McEwan will travel to the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, to compete in the 49th World Cup, which begins Monday with the first round of qualifying. All rounds will be broadcast live on BOWL.com’s BowlTV.

The World Cup is considered one of the sport’s most prestigious singles titles and will draw bowlers from more than 80 countries. McEwan and Szczerbinski know it’s a tough event to win and hope to draw from their close calls in their first World Cup experiences.

McEwan competed in last year’s World Cup in Wroclaw, Poland, and finished fourth, just missing out on the three-player stepladder finals.

“I am so honored and excited to be representing the United States at the World Cup again this year,” said McEwan, who shot a 300 game in Poland. “Last year was such a great experience, and I learned a lot. It showed me where my strengths are and pointed out some weaknesses. That experience will definitely help me going into this year.”

It was a similar story for Szczerbinski when he competed in the World Cup in 2010 in Toulon, France. He ended up in fifth place and missing the stepladder finals by just 139 pins.

“Being able to represent your country in any event is an honor,” Szczerbinski said. “Since this is my second World Cup and the first one in Toulon didn’t go as planned, I have a great opportunity at hand to put forth what I learned from the experiences I’ve had.”

The World Cup features a long qualifying format as all players bowl four six-game blocks over four days. The field is then cut to the top 24 men and top 24 women for eight additional games to determine the top eight for round-robin match play. After match play, the top three men and top three women advance to the stepladder finals.

Szczerbinski and McEwan earned the right to compete in the World Cup by winning the 2013 United States Bowling Congress Team USA Trials in January.

The Team USA Trials again will be conducted in January 2014 in Las Vegas with the winners earning spots to represent Team USA at the World Cup. For more information, visit BOWL.com/TeamUSATrials.

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