Throw It Like A Girl

source: PWBA
2017 PWBA Orlando finalists
L to R: Birgit Poppler, Danielle McEwan, Liz Johnson, Stefanie Johnson

Earlier this month, finalists for PWBA's Orlando Open were announced. The stepladder finals will air on CBS Sports Network Tuesday, August 15, 5:30 pm Eastern Time (8:30 pm Pacific Time).

Like basketball, tennis, volleyball and swimming, it's great to see women competing at the college and professional levels get recognition for athletic skills and abilities once given exclusively to men.

A recent example is University of Oklahoma softball pitcher Paige Parker. Last month, a video that went viral demonstrated how much respect she got from Kansas City Royals catcher Drew Butera when she threw a few warmup pitches to him.



While not quite the power Paige had in her pitches, professional women bowlers can throw it fast too. Below is the PWBA Orlando Open group stepladder finals. The slowest speed was 14 mph. Most ball speeds were in the high 15 mph range, some as high as 17 mph.

Keep in mind the women shown bowling likely weigh no more than 150 pounds and throw a 15-pound ball - same as the men. The heaviest allowable weight for a bowling ball is 16 pounds.

2013 World Games in Cali, Colombia

image source: 2013 World Games

UPDATE - August 4, 2013 - Congratulations to Daria Kovalova for capturing gold in the Women's Singles. Daria defeated Kelly Kulick, 428-425.
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Tomorrow in Cali, Colombia is the conclusion of the 2013 World Games.

Bowlers I have written about in previous blog entries (November 4, 2012 and May 20, 2013) such as Daria Kovalova (Ukraine), Birgit Poppler (Germany), and Aumi Guerra (Dominican Republic) are among those shown in the above video as participants in the Women's Bowling venue.

Kelly Kulick, last week's Women's U.S. Open runner-up to Liz Johnson, represented the United States. Kelly and PBA tour pro/2012 Weber Cup member Mike Fagan won the gold medal in Mixed Doubles.

Daria "Dasha" Kovalova

image source: Wichita State Bowling
 
Continuing on my quest to find competitive women's bowling outside the United States, this week's profile was a Wichita State teammate of last week's profile, Jazreel Tan. Her name is Daria Kovalova (also known as Dasha) from Ukraine.

For those of you not familiar with college bowling, Wichita State is to bowling as Kansas is to basketball, a perennial powerhouse. Current PBA bowlers Chris Barnes and Sean Rash are former Wichita State Shockers.

Three of the four finalists in the 2013 Women's Intercollegiate Bowling Championships video I included in last week's blog entry were from Wichita State: Jazreel Tan, Tannya Roumimper, and Dasha.

Like Jazreel, Dasha has captured a few bowling titles outside of Wichita State. In 2011, Dasha won the Girls Singles and All-Events European Youth Championship and in 2012 defeated Birgit Poppler in the Women's European Champions Cup (see November 4, 2012 blog entry or YouTube video below).



As Dasha is only a freshman, she's got a very bright future ahead of her. It's really a shame there's hasn't been a full women's tour since 2003. I have no doubt bowlers like Shayna Ng, Jazreel Tan and Dasha would be a big part of it.

European Champions Cup Bowling 2012 - Women's Final

From Dutch Bowling TV (commentary in English), here is video of this year's European Champions Cup, Women's Finals. Bowlers: Birgit Poppler (Germany) versus Daria Kovalova (Ukraine).

What impressed me most was their fluid releases. I also noticed was that neither of them were afraid to bowl from the outside part of the lane, something many women don't do (me included). As I've mentioned in previous entries about bowling, I watch female bowlers a lot more closely. Check to see if there's anything from their game that I can apply to mine.

Daria Kovalova lost game 1 and came from behind to win the next 2 games to defeat Birgit Poppler. The final 3 frames of the last game featured some of the best women's bowling I've seen all year. More about the match can be read at BowlingDigital.com.