16 year-old Hamish Rogers from suburban Margate in Brisbane was today presented with a Plaque commemorating 10 years continuous participation in the Championships for under-18 year old bowlers. Rogers bowled a near-perfect game of 279 during last year’s Nationals in Melbourne, and recently achieved the ultimate goal of a 300 game at his local Centre in Redcliffe.

On Sunday, Toowoomba’s Yvette Lawton will be honoured for her 15th appearance at the Junior Nationals in a small Plaque presentation ceremony prior to the start of the popular ROYAL RUMBLE event at Illawarra StrikeZone.

On behalf of Tenpin Bowling Australia, Chairperson Peter Coburn acknowledged the achievement of the two young bowlers, both of whom have been selected for the Commonwealth Youth Games national training squad. Tenpin bowling is one of only ten sports on the program for the II Commonwealth Youth Games, being held in Bendigo from 29 November to 4 December 2004.

“We’re expecting that all 20 of the Commonwealth Youth Games training squad members will be here in the Illawarra during the fortnight-long Nationals” said TBA High Performance Manager, June Voukolos. “The Commonwealth Youth Games team of two boys and two girls will be chosen after a three-day Camp to be held at the Games venue in Bendigo in late September” she added.

“The Junior Nationals is really a talent-ID base for our sport – we look for potential elite athletes and decide on selection for our annual Junior Development Camp” she continued. “This involves liaison with their coaches and if a young bowler doesn’t have a personal coach, we also try to match them with one of our accredited High Performance coaches” Ms. Voukolos explained.

Full details on the 2004 Junior National Championships and live scores throughout the event can be viewed on TBA’s official website - www.tenpin.org.au