BARNES, NATION FINISH
SEVENTH IN WORLD
GAMES MIXED DOUBLES

KAOHSIUNG, Chinese Taipei - After getting off to a slow start, Team USA's Chris Barnes and Stefanie Nation settled for a seventh-place finish recently in mixed doubles at the 2009 World Games.

The pair shot combined totals of 353 and 370 the first two games to fall behind the field in the six-game format. They finished with 2,454, missing the cut to the three-team stepladder finals by 122 pins.

Korea's Kong Byoung-Hee and Gye Min-Young went on to win the gold medal by defeating Colombia's Anggie Rodriguez and Manuel Otalora in two games, 840-710. Malaysia's Adrian Ang and Zatil Iman lost to the Koreans in the semifinal, 421-391, in one game to take the bronze medal.

"You really had to get out of the gate with a strong start and we didn't do that," said Nation, who shot 1,206. "You had to make moves quickly, and we just didn't do it early enough."

Barnes, who shot 1,248, said the decision to play the outside part of the lane early cost them a shot at making the stepladder finals.

"It was a very disappointing day," Barnes said. "We made a strategic error by deciding to play out and it turns out it was a bad decision. The lane conditions were tough and we didn't have any room to make mistakes out there."

Although mixed doubles is now concluded, the players' individual scores from Monday carry forward and are combined with 12 additional qualifying games of singles on Tuesday. The top 10 men and top 10 women after the 18 games advance to round robin match play Wednesday morning. The top three men and top three women then advance to the stepladder finals to determine the singles medalists.

Both Team USA players sit among the top 10 individuals after Monday's round. Barnes is seventh, while Nation is eighth.

Bowling is one of more than 30 sports not currently included in the Olympics that are being showcased in the World Games until July 26. Bowling, along with archery, billiards and bocce, is classified as a precision sport.

For more information on the World Games, visit the official Web site of the event at www.worldgames2009.tw.

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