Laura Fonnegra and Maria Jose Rodriguez (l-r) from Colombia won the gold medal in Girls Doubles at the 11th World Youth Championships in Helsinki, Finland, defeating equally tough Singaporeans Daphne Tan and New Hui Fen on long oil, 481-473, in a high-scoring title match.

Fonnegra fired a 259 and Rodriguez contributed 222 to beat Tan (236) and Fen (237) and to win the first gold medal of the championships for the American Zone. So far, each of the three zones of the World Tenpin Bowling Association, Asia, Europe and America, have won one gold medal.

With three of the six playoffs (Boys and Girls Singles, Doubles and Team event) in the books, the leader's curse is still intact. None of the three preliminary leaders, Carmen Haandrikman, Netherlands (Girls Singles), Park Jong-Woo, Korea (Boys Singles, and Kim Yeon-Ju & Kim Moon-Jeong, Korea (Girls Doubles) have won a single match in the playoffs and all had to settle for the bronze medal.

Singles champion Yeon-Ju and Moon-Jeong led the six-game prelims with 2663 pinfall total and an average of 221.92. Moon-Jeong was by far the best player of the 51 doubles with 1412 individual pinfall total or an average of 235.33.

Trailing the Koreans by 88 pins to earn the No. 2 seed was the second team from Singapore, Shayna Ng and Jazreel Tan, who led the second squad with 2575 (214.58). The duo finished with 1358 for the last three games to establish a new record for World Youth Championships.

The eventual finalists from Colombia and Singapore were deadlocked at 2535 (211.25). Fonnegra/Rodriguez were seeded third and Tan/Fen fourth by virtue of the higher last game. The Colombians finished with 462 including a 277 game by Fonnegra while the Singaporeans had 439 to avoid a clash with their compatriots in the semis.

The two top seeds bowed out in the semifinals, as the Koreans fell to Tan & Fen, 456-414, despite a 243 high game by Moon-Jeong, while the Fonnegra & Rodriguez topped Ng & Tan in a close match, 412-392. The No. 1 and No. 2 seeds had to settle for the bronze medal.

The girls are done for today and will return on Thursday for the first block in the Team event on short oil. Action shifts to Boys Doubles on Wednesday with the semifinals scheduled to begin at 7.30 pm CET (1.30 pm EDT). The United States Bowling Congress is working in cooperation with the Finnish Bowling Federation to provide live video streaming of the semifinals and finals of each event.