Egypt's bowlers have proved their mettle in the first two rounds of the nine-day 12th Sinai International Bowling Championship that started on April 21, according to an official at the Egyptian Bowling Federation (EBF). "This year's Sinai International Bowling Championship has drawn the attention of more than 20 countries, represented by around 200 players, 60 of them from Egypt [the host country], while the rest are foreigners," Ahmed Afifi, a member of the EBF board, told the Egyptian Mail. The countries participating in the tourney, which runs until Thursday, include Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Syria, Kuwait, Palestine, the UAE, the US, Sweden, India and Mauritius, besides Egypt, the host country. "We still have three days left and the Egyptians are already winning after the first two rounds of the championship," added Afifi. According to the official, in the men's competitions, Egypt's bowler Tareq Helmi tops the race, with Qatar's Youssef el-Gaber in the second place, while Egyptian shooting star Karim Shaheen is in third. He added that this year's tournament was a very exciting one for the bowlers, while the International Bowling Centre in Cairo's Nasr City had been welcoming a huge number of spectators every day. Meanwhile, in the women's competitions, Menna Sultan of Egypt is in the lead, followed by her teammate Amal Bakr and then Brasmia of India in the third place. "The large number of participants this year is not the only significant thing, but also the fact that the total prize money has increased to $40,000," he said. The tournament is held every year to coincide with the anniversary of Israel's 1982 handover of Sinai, which it had occupied from Egypt in the 1967 War. Ahmed Mohamed Nasr, the EBF President, explained that the main aim of participating in such championships was to improve the standard of Egypt's bowlers. "We can achieve this by getting our bowlers to participate in international championships," Nasr said, adding that the main objective of the EBF was to expand the sport all over the country. According to Nasr, this will be achieved by getting more clubs interested in providing facilities for this sport. "There are already around 46 bowling centres across the country: 20 of them belong to the Armed Forces while the rest belong to individual sponsors." Bowling is a sport in which bowlers try to score points by rolling a ball along a surface called the lane into the pins. "Boosting the sport in this country has two main benefits: making it more popular with Egyptians and encouraging tourism at the same time," he added.
