PBA Stars Capture Gold in Pan Am Games

PBA Tour stars Chris Barnes, Bill O’Neill, Kelly Kulick and past PBA Women’s Series titlist Liz Johnson gave the United States a gold-medal sweep in the Pan American Games bowling competition this week in Guadalajara, Mexico, and Johnson added another gold medal in women’s singles while Barnes picked up a silver medal in men’s singles.

Barnes and O’Neill topped Venezuela’s Jose Lander and PBA Hall of Famer Amleto Monacelli by 193 pins in the 12-game doubles competition while Kulick and Johnson ran away with a 328-pin victory over Mexico’s Sandra Gongora and Aseret Zetter at Bolerama Tapatio Tuesday.

Barnes and O’Neill qualified one-two in singles, but both were defeated by Colombia’s Santiago Mejia in the single-elimination match play finals. Meija topped Barnes, 189-171 and 205-193 in the best-of-three gold-medal match after the Colombian eliminated O’Neill, 711-589, in a three-game total pinfall match.

Johnson won Team USA’s third gold with a 232-196, 235-190 sweep of Canada’s Jennifer Park in the title match Thursday. Kulick was knocked out in the opening round by Brazil’s Stephanie Martins, 630-587.

PBA Tour exempt player, Columbia's Andres Gomez also earned a bronze medal, teaming with Mejia to finish third in men’s doubles.