In her first ever attempt at a singles provincial tournament, 10-year-old Chloe Sereda of Yorkton won first place.
Because of that provincial title she won in Regina this year, Sereda is heading to nationals in Gatineau, QC in May.
She will compete in the 5-pin singles bantam girls division against nine other athletes.
The athletes at Nationals are the best in their age groups from their respective provinces. Chloe is the only bantam girl competing from Saskatchewan.
Her mom, Jamie Decker, said Chloe started bowling when she was five years old.
“I’m a bowler myself and she really just wanted to bowl, too,” said Decker. “It started with just fun stuff and she just wanted to keep at it and she’s just been getting better each year, and she loves it.”
Chloe’s highest bowling record is 316. Her mom said that for a bantam athlete, that’s a huge game.
This is Chloe’s last year in the bantam age group. Next year, she moves up to junior.
Chloe said there’s a lot of things she likes about bowling, including the tournaments.
So far, she hasn’t travelled outside of the province to compete. She’s been to Regina and Saskatoon a number of times.
This means her upcoming trip to Quebec is her biggest tournament yet, but she said she’s not nervous, she’s just excited.
“I’ve just been practicing a lot,” said Chloe. She said she’s bumped her practicing up from once a week to three times a week. She’s been focusing on her throwing technique.
Decker said the upcoming tournament will challenge Chloe with a lot more games than she’s used to bowling in such a short time span.
Decker said her daughter has a number of coaches, but her coach for Nationals is Bev Erickson from Prince Albert. Erickson is also coaching some of the other Saskatchewan athletes in the older age groups.
There are approximately 1100 bowlers who will be attending the tournament in total.
