WTBA World Tenpin Bowling Championships


The World Tenpin Bowling Championships is a global event that invites all countries that are members of World Bowling to participate.

Event details and history

The first World Championships was in 1954, held in Helsinki where 58 men from 7 federations took part. The next three World Championships only had men participating. Women first participated in the 1963 World Championships in Mexico City. From 1963 to 2003, the World Championships were conducted every fourth year. From 2005 to 2013, to accommodate the growing number of federations taking part in the World Championships, the World Championships was split into separate events for men and women. Men had their World Championships in 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2013; while the women had their World Championships in 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2011. In 2009, it was decided to re-introduce the World Championships, to be held every fourth year with 36 countries for men and 36 countries for women. 2013 was the first combined World Championships since 2003.

Format

The format for the championships has changed many times throughout its history. In the early years of the championships, men competed in four different categories: Doubles, 4-man team, 8-man team and masters. Up until 1963 women did not participate in the event. The first year that women did take part, they competed in 4 different categories, doubles, four-person team, four-person team and masters. This is the only time the "European Style" has been used in the championships. In the following championships the European style four-person team was replaced with the five-person team event and was used until 1979. Since 1979 both men and women have competed in the same events that are used in the championships today. After the conclusion of these events, the all-events medals are presented to the top three bowlers who have accumulated the most pinfall over the 24 games.
The medalists for these events except the Masters from 1979 to 2007 were determined by total pinfall. Beginning in 2008, a medal round was introduced for singles, doubles, trios, and 5 five person team event. The Medal round consisted of the top four qualifiers playing a knockout format to determine the medalists. Beginning in 2017, the five-person team event was modified. Qualifying was still all five players bowl ten frames each with their scores added together to determine the overall score. In the medal round, the five players bowl a best of 3 baker format, where players bowl in order one frame each and repeat the order from frames 6-10.
The masters event has only recently changed with the onset of the championships splitting into 2 different events. Up until 2005 the top 16 would bowl a 16-game Round Robin with the top 3 bowlers after the 16 games advancing through to a stepladder final. From 2005 to 2011, the masters was played using the matchplay style, best of 5 format. From 2013-2015, the top 24 men and women in All-Events advanced to the Masters event. All players will bowl six games with the All-Events total carried forward. The top 8 after 30 games advance to seven games of round robin match play, where 20 bonus points are awarded for a won match and 10 bonus points for a tied match. The top 4 advance to the semifinals, which is a one-game match, 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3. The semifinal losers will earn a bronze medal. The semifinal winners advance to a one-game final match to determine gold and silver medals. In 2017, the masters format reverted to matchplay style, best of 3.

Dual pattern format

In 2005 the World Championships adopted the "dual pattern format" lane conditions. The two patterns are chosen from a bank of oil patterns certified by World Bowling. These oil patterns are classified as "short", "medium", and "long". Each bowler at the championships will bowl an equal number of games on the two patterns. In the masters, each match is played on alternating lane patterns with the highest seed having the choice of which pattern to start on.
The concept of having two different lane patterns is to force the bowlers to be more versatile in the championships. The two different lane patterns force the bowlers to attack each pattern from different angles, using different styles of play, such as ball speed, hand position and ball choice. It has been argued that in previous championships around the world, using one pattern for the whole event would suit certain bowlers over others, which was deemed as being unfair. It was agreed that having two different lane conditions would be a fairer way of determining the best bowlers at the championships. Many other championships around the world have also adopted this format, such as the Men's and Women's European Championships, the Asian Games, the World Ranking Masters, The Commonwealth Championships and the Asian Championships. World Bowling announced in December 2015 only one lane pattern will be used for the entirety of future World Championships, ending the dual pattern format.

Championships

World Bowling Executive Board have awarded the 2021 Combined World Championships hosting rights to Kuwait. Hong Kong will host the Men's World Championships in 2018, and Las Vegas will host the Women's World Championships in 2019.
A new event, WTBA World Singles Championships for men and women, was held for the first time in Limassol, Cyprus from September 18–26, 2012, and will be held subsequently every four years. With this new event, WTBA will stage a World Championship event every year.
NumberYearCityCountryWomenMenTotalEvents
11954Helsinki-58584
21955Essen-64644
31958Helsingborg-99994
41960Hamburg-1021024
51963Mexico City451321778
61967Malmö841612258
71971Milwaukee1032683718
81975London1522714238
91979Manila14617532112
101983Caracas17520638112
111987Helsinki19623042612
121991Singapore19628047612
131995Reno25335861112
141999Abu Dhabi25534560012
152003Kuala Lumpur23434858212
162005Aalborg216-2166
172006Busan-2472476
182007Monterrey227-2276
192008Bangkok-3333336
202009Las Vegas228-2286
212010Munich-3563566
222011Hong Kong171-1716
232013Henderson21221642812
242014Abu Dhabi-2722726
252015Abu Dhabi147-1476
262017Las Vegas17621338912
272018Hong Kong2652656
282019Las Vegas1781786
292021Kuwait City--

Medal history

Women's medal table

As 2019

Men's medal table

As 2018

Total medal table

As 2019

Medal winners

Please see List of WTBA World Tenpin Bowling Championships medalists.

World Championship Records

Men

Women