28th June, Kuching, Sarawak: Kang Dahoon of Korea topped the Boy's Singles second qualifying squad ahead of Ben Pettit of New Zealand in second and Luis Enrique P Echeverria of Mexico in third to become the pole-sitter of the 2026 IBF World Youth Bowling Championships overall standings.

Jason Leung of Hong Kong had a great start with a superb 279 in his opening game to lead Emil Svensson of Sweden by 24 pins. Hassan Qasem of Kuwait was third with 254 and Daiya Saito of Japan in fourth. Leung's lead only lasted one game as he stumbled to a lowly 181 to quickly drop down.

Hassan added a good game of 248 to take over the running after the second game. Australia's Julian Dinham rolled 237 and 257 to take up second spot, eight pins away. Landin Jordan of USA and Kang Dahoon stayed closed with respectable games of their own.

Another strong game by Hassan allowed the Kuwaiti to remain in the lead and stretching his lead over Dinham to 31 pins. But back-to-back 263 and 266 games from Ben Pettit of New Zealand propelled him to the front. Hassan returned 213 to drop to second.

Kang then picked up his pace to reel in 247, 222 and a massive game of 268 to snatch top spot on this quad with 1435. Pettit finished second with 1381 while Echeverria took third spot with 1360. Combining the two squads, Kang became the overall leader.

Squad 1 leader, Noel Haglund Torgersen of Sweden ended in second, 39 pins from the leader. The New Zealander finished third. Laurynas Narusis of Lithuania and Muhd Aiman Syahin competed the top five. The cut in 16th position for next Matchplay Round went to Matys Bibeau of Canada with 1316. Squad 2 pace-setter, Hassan missed the cut by just three pins in 17th.

The top 16 will be divided into two groups of eighth boys. The will bowl seven head-to-head Matchplay Round-Robin style matches with 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 points for a loss. The top two with the highest points from each group will proceed to the Singles Semi-finals.

The Girl's Singles Squad 1 will be contested later at 6:00pm local time while Squad 2 will be held at 9:00am tomorrow. Again the top 16 from the combined two squads will qualify for the Matchplay Round.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Kuching, Sarawak.