30th March, London: At least three former champions are expected to compete for the 2004 AMF Bowling World Cup ladies' honors in Singapore this December.

Last year's champion, Kerrie Ryan-Ciach of Canada, ensured that she would defend her title by capturing the Canadian World Cup qualifier March 20-21 in Surrey, British Columbia. Ryan-Ciach of Mississauga, Ontario, defeated another Team Canada member, Julie Johnson-Loyer of Chateauguay, Quebec, in the women's two-game championship match, 197-233 and 234-217. (As top seed in the stepladder finals, Ryan-Ciach had to be defeated twice in the title bout).

The 33-year-old Ryan-Ciach underlined her bid to repeat as World Cup champion by firing a perfect single-game score of 300 during the women's qualifying rounds.

Joining Ryan-Ciach is the woman she defeated in Honduras to win the 2003 title, 21-year-old Shannon Pluhowsky of the United States. Pluhowsky, who lives in Phoenix, Arizona, won the women's Cup in 2002 in Latvia by defeating England's Nikki Harvey in the championship round.

Pluhowsky qualified for this year's AMF World Cup by winning her third consecutive U.S. National Amateur Championship title in January. The veteran of the threesome is 1992 women's champion Martina Beckel of Germany, who won her national selection event earlier this year.

Beckel, 45, captured the AMF World Cup in Le Mans, France with a title-round victory over Argentina's Maria-Laura Lanzavecchia. Beckel made it to the quarterfinals in Honduras last year. This will be her eighth AMF World Cup appearance.

The women will be joined by the first person ever to roll a perfect game in the Bowling World Cup, Jack Guay of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Guay, who last tried for the men's title in 1998 in Kobe, Japan, won the Canadian men's World Cup finals by defeating top-seeded Clint Klassen, 236-224 and 263-253.

Guay's historic 300 game came in 1994 in Hermosillo, Mexico. He followed that with a second perfect score one year later at the Bowling World Cup in Sao Paolo, Brazil. He remains the only person who has rolled two 300 games in the 39 years of the AMF Bowling World Cup. His best showings came in 1993 and 1995 (South Africa and Brazil, respectively), when he placed fourth. This will be his fifth AMF World Cup.

The U.S. men's representative is 20-year-old Richard Fairley Jr. of Lynchburg, Virginia. Fairley, a student at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, is in his first year with the U.S. national team. He was a triple gold medallist at the 2003 Bowling Tournament of the Americas in Miami, Florida.

Germany is sending Peter Knopp as its men's representative. Knopp has participated in several Bowling World Cup events as a player. He has also contributed to the event as one of the AMF tournament staff, most notably as a ball-driller and pro-shop services specialist. Bowlers from 77 nations competed in the 2003 AMF Bowling World Cup in Tegucigalpa, Honduras last fall. While Ryan-Ciach has already qualified for Singapore, last year's men's champion, C.J. Suarez of the Philippines, must still win his national qualifying later this year to defend his title.

The 40th annual edition of the tournament will be held at the new SuperBowl at SAFRA, Telok Blangah, December 4-11.

The AMF Bowling World Cup is the world's largest annual international sports championship in terms of number of participating nations. AMF Bowling Worldwide Inc., the founder and principal sponsor of the Bowling World Cup, is the world's largest owner and operator of bowling centers. AMF is also a leader in the manufacturing and marketing of bowling and billiards products. More information about AMF is available on the Internet at www.amf.com.

Media released by Lydia Rypcinski, AMF Media Bureau/Chicago via e-mail at l.rypcinski@att.net. For further information, please contact: Anne-Marie Board at aboard@amf.com

Photos courtesy of Mr. Hero Noda, official AMF Bowling World Cup photographer.