Australian Under-18 finals upon us
Two lots of girl’s disciplines (singles and fours) and two boy’s (triples and pairs) disciplines have concluded sectional play with gold medal matches and play-offs down to eighth being decided for tomorrow’s finals day. As we near the end of the 2015 Australian Under-18 Championships seven state and territories are now confirmed starters in the first eight of 16 medal play-off matches to be contested tomorrow, the final day’s play.
With nerves at the highest in the final round of sectional play the best of the best junior bowlers in the country delivered the goods in the penultimate game, qualifying for their chance to return home a national medallist in the most trying of conditions.
In the coveted girls’ singles event Victoria’s Tiffany Brodie has progressed through her section undefeated and now finds herself in the gold medal play-off against the current Australian Open girls’ singles champion Queensland’s Sophie Young, who also progressed to the final without a loss to her name despite trailing 0-12 in the deciding match with Tasmania’s Makayla Gibson.
In the boys pairs two underdogs have prevailed to tomorrow’s final having won through their sections without dropping a game; Tasmania defeated Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia to finish on three wins with a margin of 31 and South Australia defeated New South Wales, Victoria and ACT to move into the gold medal play-off with three wins and a margin of 21.
In the boys triples we have another state of origin like affair with Queensland meeting New South Wales in what is likely to be an epic battle between two powerhouse states.
Jesse Herbert, Dylan Skinner and Jordan Taylor will contest the first gold medal playoff for the NSW boys but will come up against three determined Queenslanders, Mitchell Mears, Jacob Nelson and Hayden Vogler.
New South Wales have advanced to the girls fours final after three convincing wins in sectional play; however, they will face a very strong Queensland outfit skipped by Tiffany Murray who survived a tight encounter that went past the time limit with Tasmania in the final sectional match.
In the playoffs for bronze, NSW/ACT NTC Squad member Jessica Hogan will meet Tasmania’s Makayla Gibson in the girls’ singles, Queensland will go head to head with Victoria in the boys pairs, Tasmania will contest another bronze medal playoff in the boys triples against South Australia and last but certainly not least the girls fours will feature Western Australia and South Australia.
Whilst the Northern Territory is yet to book a ticket into a medal playoff, they go into the final sectional match of the event girl’s pairs on top of the ladder; in the boy’s fours they are still mathematically in the hunt for a bronze medal playoff.
With so many states having success at this year’s championships, the race to be crowned overall national champion is well and truly up for grabs.
Queensland may have their noses in front having qualified for three gold medal matches and one bronze medal playoff; however there are still four more finals left to be decided this afternoon.
To view all the results, team lists and progressive ladders visit the Australian Under-18 webpage on the Bowls Australia website.
