27th August, Las Vegas: Team USA sealed topspot in semi-finals after an emphatic victory in the Team of 5 preliminaries of the 2019 World Bowling Women's Championships with Mexico, Sweden and Colombia joining in second, third and fourth.

Trios semi-finalists, Missy Parkin and Ilz Kuhlkin along with Stefanie Johnson, Singles semi-finalists, Danielle McEwan and Shannon O'Keefe got off the block with a sizzling 1136 in their opening game to lead defending champion, Malaysia by 62 pins.

Favourites, Colombia and fancied Mexico followed in third and fourth with 1071 and 1039 respectively. The Americans added anothr superb 1106 in the second game to stretch their lead to 84 pins.

Mexico's Adriana Perez, Aseret Zetter, Paola Limon, Sandra Gongora and Iliana Lomeli posted a superb 1117 in which Gongora almost rolled the championships' first perfect game but was contented with 298 to trail USA. Malaysia slipped down to third with Colombia and Canada in the top 5.

Malaysia managed only 1026 to slip down to fourth with 3164 while Canada shot 1139 to take up third position with a total of 3238. Mexico stumbled to a low 936 and fell down to seventh.

At the start of the second block, Team USA continued their sizzling pace with yet another 1181 to stay firmly in the lead, 272 pins ahead of their nearest rival. Canada kept their strong momentum to move into second as Colombia dropped to fourth behind Sweden making their bid in third.

USA erased their disappointment at the 2017 World Championships for not making the semi-finals after ending the second block with 1124 and 1056 to seal topspot with 6750.

Mexico bounced back with 1110 in the fifth game and 1064 in their final game to secure second position with 6371. The battle for third and fourth positions were hotly contested amongst Canada, Sweden and Colombia.

Maria Rodriguez won the first gold medal for Colombia after topping the All Events standings with 5488 from 24 games bowled in the Singles, Doubles, Trios and Team of 5. Joline Persson Planfors of Sweden snatched the silver medal with 5425 while Shannon O'Keefe of USA picked up the bronze medal with 5422.

Son Hyerin of Korea, Cherie Tan of Singapore, Missy Parkin and Danielle McEwan of USA and Juliana Franco joined the All Event winners to earn a bye and automatically qualify for the Round 2 Masters finals in the top 8.

Clara Guerrero missed the top 8 by five pins to head qualifiers positioned 9 to 24 in the All Events standings for Round 1 Masters finals. Jung Dawun of Korea and Bernice Lim of Singpaore tied at the cut with 5132. Rocio Restrpo of Colombia missed the cut by 11 pins after finishing 25th.

A total of five from Sweden, four from USA, three each from Colombia and Korea, two each from Malaysia and Singapore, and one each from Canada, Finland, Indonesia, Japan and Russia made up the 24 Masters finals qualifiers.