In the first tournament after the great earthquake, Yachio Kato (pictured left) of Tokyo captured her 13th career Japan Professional Bowlers Association women's title in the Miyazaki Pro-Am Open Tournament which was held in the Kyushu Region in South Japan from April 21-24, 2011.The 59-year-old ended a five-year title draught with a 225-217 victory against Hiromi Matsunaga en route to earn the 1.200.000 Yen winner's check or approximately US$14,627.
Matsunaga (right), who was targeting for back-to-back JPBA titles after winning the season-opening Kansai Open Ladies Bowling Tournament, received 620.000 Yen ($7,557) for second place.
Matsunaga started the game with an open frame after failing to convert the 4-6-7 split followed by a spare before she reeled off a four-bagger to take a 30-pin lead. Kato alternated strikes and spares in the first four frames, spare a 10-pin in the fifth and countered with a four-bagger to regain the lead.
The top 16 players were seeded into two pools (A and B) of eight players each to determine the finalist in single-elimination head-to-head matches. In the final of Pool A, Kato eliminated Tomoe Yoshikawa (left), 235-212, while Matsunaga topped Masami Abe (right) in the B Pool final, 203-195. Yoshikawa and Abe tied for third place worth 370.000 Yen ($4,510) apiece.
Junia Yoshida of Japan Bowling Promotion reports that the third stop of the 2011 JPBA Ladies Tour, the 2011 Pro Test originally scheduled for March/April, was postponed and is now scheduled for the beginning of May.
The girls from Russia and the boys from the Netherlands are in the driver's seat after the first three-game block of the four-player Team events in the 24th European Youth Championships at Dream-Bowl Palace in Unterföhring, Germany. 
With the final three-game block to go on Thursday, the top five teams in the girls division are within 35 pins. England with Doubles champions Bethany Hedley and Hannah Frost was 14 pins behind Russia in second place with 2340 and was followed by Finland and Sweden in third and fourth place with 2324 and 2319.
The Dutch boys battled it out for the spot with the German team. Kevin De Haan, Jord Van Weeren, Ramon Hilferink and Joshua Schuurman (pictured left) had games of 882, 891 and 845 to hold a slim one-pin lead with record 2618 and an average of 218.71. Schuurman (right) rolled the first 300 of the EYC in the first game.
The EYC 2011 is divided in two divisions - boys and girls. Each team consists of maximum four male and four female players, who must not have reached the age of 19 before August 31st, 2011.