2023 World Champion of Champions: Day 3 recap
A scintillating day at Robina saw Karen Murphy edge much closer to becoming the second bowler in history to clinch the World Champion of Champions twice.
Murphy enjoyed an undefeated day, while Jono Davis would split his ledger from his two contests.
Sitting in third in her section heading into the final two rounds of the group stage, Murphy’s opening matchup was against New Zealand’s Selina Goddard, fresh off a strong performance at the World Bowls Championships across the last fortnight.
With Goddard ahead in the section it was vital for the Australian to notch up the win and she came out of the blocks strongly to take the opening stanza before a tight second set ensued.
The 48-year-old’s experience was able to shine through as she sealed the contest by taking the second before tripling down to win 8-3 4-3 9-2 in a terrific display to put herself in the prime position to book passage into the quarterfinals.
That path was confirmed in Murphy’s final match of the sectional rounds against Esther Wanjiru Ndunga of Kenya, in which she would clinch a come from behind 2-6 4-1 4-3 victory as she concluded the preliminary stage on top of her group.
In the men’s field, Davis took on dual Commonwealth Games gold medallist in Daniel Salmon and despite the Australian taking the first set it would ultimately be the Welsh star who came out on top with a 4-3 2-5 7-4 win.
Davis would notch up his second salutation of the tournament in his penultimate sectional round matchup against the Philippines Christopher Dagpin, which he would conquer 2-6 11-0 5-2.
The finals draws will be decided in the remaining sectional matches tomorrow.
View the day 3 results and tournament schedule HERE
The tournament will run from September 12-16 at the Robina Bowls Club on the Gold Coast, with live streaming to be done by Gold Coast Tweed District on their Facebook and YouTube pages.
