The Qubicaamf Dinner
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
I chose because Warm welcome to a cold place When the announcement was made that the 49th Bowling World Cup would be going to Krasnoyarsk, in Russia, a lot of people may have thought that QubicaAMF had taken leave of its corporate senses. Siberia? In winter? But everyone who made the journey will now agree – it was an inspired decision. The ‘World Class’ Sibiryak complex of Hilton Garden Inn hotel, 24 lane ‘Sharovaya Molniya’(Lightning Ball) bowling centre, restaurants, spa and fitness centre was precisely that – World Class. We were the first guests ever to occupy the hotel. Any glitches were fixed quickly and always with a smile. And the local organising committee had set on a team of volunteers who spoke superb English and a variety of other languages such as French, German, Spanish and even Japanese. Krasnoyarsk was closed to foreigners until 1990, but the hospitality shown to players and guests from 76 countries was second to none. Gary Skidmore, Owner SkidZ Family Entertainment Center, New staff at the Hilton Garden Inn process some of the first guests Albuquerque, NM “ 32 Lanes Some of our wonderful volunteers relaxing or working in their ” dedicated office Find out why more proprietors chose BES X – the best selling scoring system in the world! www.QubicaAMF.com/chooseBESX Our hotel from the outside, one of many new buildings in Krasnoyarsk Meet our local volunteers 3 Bernard Gibbons introduces the proceedings The opening ceremony Everything was ready and the opening ceremony was upon us. A total 74 men and 64 women representing 76 different countries lined up and marched into the centre, preceded by the trophies. We were honoured to have two members of the Krasnoyarsk regional government with us – Alexander Uss (Head of the Legislative Assembly) and Sergey Alexeev (Minister of Sport, Tourism and Youth Politics). Russian player Evgeniya Zelenkova took the oath of fair play on behalf of the players and Alexander Abysov on behalf of the marshals and judges. Introduced by our master of ceremonies and tournament Director, Bernard Gibbons, leading dignitaries gave speeches of welcome: Addie Ophelders (President of the European Tenpin Bowling Federation), Sergei Lisitsyn (President of the Federation of Sport Bowling Russia), Ron Wood (Senior Vice-President of QubicaAMF), Vladimir Egorov (owner and Chief Executive of Sibiryak Company and proprietor of the magnificent facility) and Sergey Alexeev. Then it was down to Vladimir Egorov to bowl the first ball. The opening ceremony was also a chance for us to say a special welcome to two nations which had not competed in the Bowling World Cup before: Kyrgyzstan and Montenegro. After that we all walked through to the reception area and ballrooms of the hotel for the welcome party and a floor show of Siberian music and dance. Vladimir Egorov takes the first ball of the tournament Bernard Gibbons introduces the proceedings Evgeniya Zelenkova takes the oath of fair play Our first time competitors: Valery Kim and Azhar Baitulayeva of Kyrgyzstan and Julia Sorokolet and Sergey Sergeev of Montenegro The dancers are our welcome party Vladimir Egorov welcomes us all to his lovely centre Alexandr Uss looks justifiably pleased as he Addie Ophelders speaking welcomes the world to Krasnoyarsk Some of the players and guests enjoying the hospitality at the welcome party 4 5 The qualifying rounds Keeping up with the action All the players bowled 24 games in four blocks of six. Peter Hellström of Sweden led from the first set and was still in the lead This year QubicaAMF organised more on-line and social media presence than ever before. after 24 games with Mats Maggi of Belgium in second and Alexei Parshukov of Russia in third at this stage. Mats also set a new Bowling World Cup record for six games when he hit 1599 in the second set. Natalia Nikitina from the Moscow office seemed to be everywhere at once taking photos with her mobile and posting to Facebook. She also took charge of the QubicaAMF Twitter account. The result was more than 300,000 followers on the The cut for the top 24 was made at 5465, an average of 222.71, with William Ching of Venezuela going through and Sami Facebook page and the numbers are still growing. Lampo from Finland missing out. The overall average for all the men was 214.46. Several players also used their Facebook pages and Twitter accounts to let their friends know how they were getting on. Nino Stenko of Slovenia and Dmitri Chilkine of Belarus were the first players ever from their countries to reach the top 24. As is now usual, fans around the world could follow on-line individual players’ scores through the live scoring on the QubicaAMF It was a similar story in the women’s section with Canadian Caroline Lagrange, our champion in 2009, leading the way from web site. The web site is proving an increasingly popular way for bowling fans everywhere to follow the event: visits were 64% the start. Aumi Guerra from the Dominican Republic, champion in 2010 and 2011, was in second and Danielle McEwan of the up on last year, with more visits from Sweden than any other country. In total there were over 850,000 views on the web site. USA in third. The overall average for the 64 women in the tournament was 196.96, six pins a game up on last year. Live streaming from lanes in the centre of the house was provided by Lucas Wiseman for Bowl TV on behalf of QubicaAMF. The cut for the top 24 fell at 5002 (a 208.42 average) with Nataliya Shcherbinina of the Ukraine just making it through ahead And fans from more than 160 countries tuned into the live streaming of the final on YouTube! of Cristina Sanz of Catalonia who shot 1301 in the last set but it was not enough and she finished in 25th on 4967. That is still the best result ever for a Catalonian woman. Lucas was delighted: “I really enjoyed doing this. I got to see some great bowling and it was so cool knowing that people all over the world were watching.” Three other countries achieved their best ever results in the women’s section by making the top 24: Aruba (Thashaina Seraus), Romania (Luminita Farkas Bucin) and Turkey (Gulhan Aksular). Players listen intently at the briefing Lucas behind his desk Players listen intently at the briefing Stretching before play: here we see Sandra Cristina Sanz and Sami Lampo who finished just out Natalia busy with her mobile phone The web site was popular with players as well. Here The view from Lucas’s TV set up Andersson of Sweden and Erich Pisarki of Hungary of the top 24 we see Janet Shaikh of Pakistan. 6 7 Meet all the players Here we see all the players. Designed to match your vision style and center needs There are many furniture lines on the market that bowling centers could choose. But only Harmony is uniquely designed to address three core needs that today’s centers face: • to match your vision, style and center needs better than creating your own custom furniture • to accommodate your diverse customer’s needs while maximizing their comfort and experience • to make maintenance easy and cost effective, ensuring that your investment will last Most important, Harmony is exclusively designed to deliver the style, flexibility and functionality you envision to take your business to the next level—delivering an experience far beyond your customer’s expectations and driving your revenue. Going to college The company also runs a school for those entering the bowling industry. It covers all aspects of running a bowling centre with lecturer Roger Creamer, QubicaAMF’s Director of Training. Designed for Bowling. Designed for you To see the new Harmony video go to: www.bowlinginnovation.com Roger Creamer with Rosa Katz and Mahmud Boltabaev who is about to open a centre in Tashkent. Rosa is QubicaAMF’s Senior Product Manager and will be The students at the management school taking over the management school from Roger in future. 9 Alexander Abysov, chief lane marshall, keeps everyone The topography of a typical synthetic lane compared with a QubicaAMF SPL lane in order A deluge of perfect games It started with Kestutis Gudauskas of Lithuania: our first 300 came in the second squad of the first day. Later, Alex de Vries of the Netherlands hit the second perfect game and that was followed by another perfect score, this time from Derek Lee, a student from Macau. Or Aviram of Israel started the day two 300 rush and nearly followed it with another but the ten pin stood still. Next up was Chris Sloan of Ireland, who hoped his friends would have watched it on the live streaming as they came back from a night out. Then along came our champion of 1994, Tore Torgersen of Norway, who shot his 49th perfect game in the 49th QubicaAMF World Cup, and promptly followed it up by bowling his 50th in the next game, the first time there has ever been back-to-back 300s in the Alex de Vries after his 300 Derek Lee passes on his strikes Chris Sloan texts home with news of Or Aviram takes his last ball for his World Cup. He explained it by saying: “It just shows there is life in the old dog yet”. his two 300 games first perfect game of the tournament Day three and Or Aviram had his second perfect game of the tournament. Then Mykhaylo Kalika of the Ukraine got in on the act.