Junior Team USA's Abigania finishes 10th at 2025 IBF Youth World Cup
June 21, 2025
Junior Team USA's Katelyn Abigania takes a picture on the lanes at Olympia Bowling in Helsingborg, Sweden. On Saturday, the 18-year-old right-hander's tournament run came to an end when she was eliminated during the women's Round of 16. Abigania finished in 10th place out of 31 athletes.
INFORMATION AND RESULTS
HELSINGBORG, Sweden – Junior Team USA bowler Katelyn Abigania of San Diego placed 10th out of 31 competitors in Women’s Singles at the 2025 International Bowling Federation Youth World Cup, which was contested at Olympia Bowling in Helsingborg, Sweden, from June 17-21.
The 18-year-old right-hander was in eighth place at the conclusion of qualifying on Thursday and moved all the way up to fourth following the first eight games of round-robin match play on Friday.
Unfortunately, the tide turned against Abigania on Saturday afternoon when she was able to win just one of her final seven matches during the women’s Round of 16.
The two-time Junior Gold champion’s day began with losses to Malaysia’s Adania Redzwan (202-193), Thailand’s Ramita Sarntong (218-201) and Singapore’s Shi En Lim (242-180).
Abigania rebounded with a 214-179 win over Ireland’s Hannah Masterson in Game 4, but that would be the only taste of victory the American would get to enjoy at Olympia Bowling on Saturday as she then dropped her final three matches – 205-178 to Denmark’s Karen Nielsen, 240-184 to Jenny Mathiesen of Norway and 175-171 to Mexico’s Ivanna Emire Villalobos Erosa – to miss the quarterfinal cut by 45 pins.
Despite not realizing her goal of claiming a fifth international medal – she won four gold medals (doubles, trios, team and all-event) at the 2023 PANAM Bowling Youth Championships in Lima, Peru – Abigania was happy with how she competed in Sweden.
“I’m proud of my urethane usage, especially during the last two games today,” Abigania said. “I’ve never been very familiar with urethane, so being able to throw it and be confident doing so shows me where I’m at in my development.
“Also, I haven’t been perfect out here the entire time, so being able to work through that and get comfortable doing things I’m not usually comfortable with is great.”
According to Abigania, it was how the challenging 43-foot Youth World Cup oil pattern evolved during each round of competition that kept her from ever truly finding her comfort zone, especially on Saturday.
“The lanes hooked a lot more in the front and were much tighter in the back end today,” Abigania said. “This was the most we’d seen them hook early, especially with such a big puddle down lane.”
Even though Abigania would have liked to have solved the riddle and advanced a few more rounds to reach the podium, she was grateful for having had the opportunity to don the red, white and blue on the lanes once again.
“Bowling for Junior Team USA has always been something I look forward to every year, and I’m very fortunate to have traveled three years in a row,” Abigania said. “I hope to continue traveling for Junior Team USA because there’s nothing like bowling for your country, especially when you get to represent great coaches, great teammates and just a great team culture in general.”
One of those teammates is Connor Fleming of Fort Worth, Texas, who competed alongside Abigania in Helsingborg this week.
Fleming averaged just under 206 during 18 games of qualifying and finished 23rd out of 37 athletes in the men’s division during his international debut.
The gold medals up for grabs at this year’s Youth World Cup went to Australia’s Samantha Clifton and home country hero Robin Ilhammar of Sweden.
Clifton earned hers via a 2-0 (221-194, 185-172) sweep of defending champion Elena Weinstok of Costa Rica shortly before Ilhammar completed a successful title defense by blanking Ondrej Prekop of Czech Republic, 276-205 and 295-161, to bring home men’s gold at the Youth World Cup for the second year in a row.
Weinstok and Prekop each took home a silver medal.
Both third-place contests were sweeps as well with Nielsen defeating Lim by scores of 199-165 and 199-198 to capture women’s bronze as Luukas Vaananen of Finland dispatched Singapore’s Brian Ngoi, 268-247 and 249-247, to win bronze in the men’s division.
After all medals were awarded, the day ended with athletes and coaches taking part in the Victory Banquet, which officially brought the tournament to a close.
To be eligible for the 2025 IBF Youth World Cup, athletes had to have been between the ages of 13 and 20 on Jan. 1, 2025.
For information and results from the 2025 IBF Youth World Cup, CLICK HERE.
CLICK HERE for more information on Junior Team USA.
INFORMATION AND RESULTS
HELSINGBORG, Sweden – Junior Team USA bowler Katelyn Abigania of San Diego placed 10th out of 31 competitors in Women’s Singles at the 2025 International Bowling Federation Youth World Cup, which was contested at Olympia Bowling in Helsingborg, Sweden, from June 17-21.
The 18-year-old right-hander was in eighth place at the conclusion of qualifying on Thursday and moved all the way up to fourth following the first eight games of round-robin match play on Friday.
Unfortunately, the tide turned against Abigania on Saturday afternoon when she was able to win just one of her final seven matches during the women’s Round of 16.
The two-time Junior Gold champion’s day began with losses to Malaysia’s Adania Redzwan (202-193), Thailand’s Ramita Sarntong (218-201) and Singapore’s Shi En Lim (242-180).
Abigania rebounded with a 214-179 win over Ireland’s Hannah Masterson in Game 4, but that would be the only taste of victory the American would get to enjoy at Olympia Bowling on Saturday as she then dropped her final three matches – 205-178 to Denmark’s Karen Nielsen, 240-184 to Jenny Mathiesen of Norway and 175-171 to Mexico’s Ivanna Emire Villalobos Erosa – to miss the quarterfinal cut by 45 pins.
Despite not realizing her goal of claiming a fifth international medal – she won four gold medals (doubles, trios, team and all-event) at the 2023 PANAM Bowling Youth Championships in Lima, Peru – Abigania was happy with how she competed in Sweden.
“I’m proud of my urethane usage, especially during the last two games today,” Abigania said. “I’ve never been very familiar with urethane, so being able to throw it and be confident doing so shows me where I’m at in my development.
“Also, I haven’t been perfect out here the entire time, so being able to work through that and get comfortable doing things I’m not usually comfortable with is great.”
According to Abigania, it was how the challenging 43-foot Youth World Cup oil pattern evolved during each round of competition that kept her from ever truly finding her comfort zone, especially on Saturday.
“The lanes hooked a lot more in the front and were much tighter in the back end today,” Abigania said. “This was the most we’d seen them hook early, especially with such a big puddle down lane.”
Even though Abigania would have liked to have solved the riddle and advanced a few more rounds to reach the podium, she was grateful for having had the opportunity to don the red, white and blue on the lanes once again.
“Bowling for Junior Team USA has always been something I look forward to every year, and I’m very fortunate to have traveled three years in a row,” Abigania said. “I hope to continue traveling for Junior Team USA because there’s nothing like bowling for your country, especially when you get to represent great coaches, great teammates and just a great team culture in general.”
One of those teammates is Connor Fleming of Fort Worth, Texas, who competed alongside Abigania in Helsingborg this week.
Fleming averaged just under 206 during 18 games of qualifying and finished 23rd out of 37 athletes in the men’s division during his international debut.
The gold medals up for grabs at this year’s Youth World Cup went to Australia’s Samantha Clifton and home country hero Robin Ilhammar of Sweden.
Clifton earned hers via a 2-0 (221-194, 185-172) sweep of defending champion Elena Weinstok of Costa Rica shortly before Ilhammar completed a successful title defense by blanking Ondrej Prekop of Czech Republic, 276-205 and 295-161, to bring home men’s gold at the Youth World Cup for the second year in a row.
Weinstok and Prekop each took home a silver medal.
Both third-place contests were sweeps as well with Nielsen defeating Lim by scores of 199-165 and 199-198 to capture women’s bronze as Luukas Vaananen of Finland dispatched Singapore’s Brian Ngoi, 268-247 and 249-247, to win bronze in the men’s division.
After all medals were awarded, the day ended with athletes and coaches taking part in the Victory Banquet, which officially brought the tournament to a close.
To be eligible for the 2025 IBF Youth World Cup, athletes had to have been between the ages of 13 and 20 on Jan. 1, 2025.
For information and results from the 2025 IBF Youth World Cup, CLICK HERE.
CLICK HERE for more information on Junior Team USA.