The IBSA World Games are nearly at our door, and tenpin bowling for the visually impaired will be one of the other medal sports tournaments on the schedule. The event will officially take place from August 21st to August 25th at the Hollywood Bowl.

Hollywood Bowl is a commercial tenpin centre providing 15 lanes every day from 9 am to 4 pm. Due to the limited number of lanes, tenpin bowling was going through qualification procedures at two major Singles events held in May 2023: the European Championships in Prague, Czech Republic, and the Asian Championships in Hong Kong.

The best three men from Europe and the best six men from Asia in each eye class category, i.e., B1, B2, and B3, advanced from the singles events, and the best two women from Europe and the best three women from Asia completed the final list of participants. Finally, 44 athletes (28 men and 16 women) from 12 countries filled their qualification slots for Birmingham.

List of countries taking part in the IBSA World Games at Tenpin bowling competition.

Europe: Czech Republic, Finland, Israel, Poland, Slovakia, Romania and hosting country Great Britain

Asia: South Korea, Japan, Hong-Kong, Chinese Taipei, Singapore

There are two new countries, Slovakia and Romania, that never bowled in the past but, for the first time, took part at the IBSA European Championships in Prague in 2023 and qualified through wild cards. Unfortunately, Malaysia and Thailand, although qualified, had to withdraw their participation at the very last moment.

Preliminary schedule

August 21st
Official training sessions

Augusto 22nd
Singles events for men and women categories First round

August 23rd
Singles event for men and women categories First round and final

August 24th
Double events

August 25th
Trios events

Medals will also be presented in the all-event categories for each eye class separately.

Schedules are not yet closed because they can be changed for the smooth flow of tenpin competitions.

Tenpin for the visually impaired is played without any restrictions, and B1 athletes are using a special guiderail to help them bowl. The first round is played on six games, and three more games are to be played in the final at the IBSA WG at Singles events.

Tenpin was played at the IBSA World Games in South Korea in 2015. Some major events were taking place by 2018, but then the COVID era made it difficult and stopped the sport for nearly three years, as even last year Asian countries were going through much more severe restrictions than in Europe. Luckily, 2023 means a big restart for Tenpin, setting it back on its pathway to be another Paralympic sport in the future. New athletes appeared, and a new calendar for every year is to be settled for 2024 to 2027: every year Asian and European Championships are to be held with emphasis on extending the number of new countries and also set default as qualifying events for the best athletes to participate at World Championships in 2024 and 2026 and IBSA Games in 2027, once a two year World Championships is planned, the new plan is to bring in new regions and countries from Africa and America to host their continental championships as well.

“I am very happy that Tenpin is a part of the IBSA World Games in Birmingham after all its difficulties during the COVID era. This sport is getting back on track, and we managed to find new athletes and new countries. We will keep working on this progress. Tenpin, among all the sports, is one of the sports that introduced a qualification system to make it highly attractive for the athletes during the IBSA Games. In the future, in order to advance in the process of making it a suitable candidate for a new Paralympic sport, we will hold more continental championships on a yearly basis to provide good practise and chances to develop for our tenpin athletes. We also aim to attract more new countries, and the IBSA World Games is a great opportunity to talk to new athletes, country officials, and many more to go and see tenpin competitions so that in the forthcoming year we can grow and get stronger in our effort to promote this sport that can be played at any age, which makes it beautiful and inspiring.“

Zdeněk Barlok, IBSA Tenpin Sports Chairman