For the second time in three years, Natalya Langevin will represent the province of Alberta at the Youth Bowling Canada National Championships in the bantam girls five-pin singles category. The championship is taking place in Oshawa and Toronto from May 2 to 4.
The ten-year-old from Mallaig earned one of the 14 berths at the championship by prevailing at the provincial championships in Calgary on Feb. 22.
It was an incredibly tight victory over Keaton Chrest of Red Deer. Langevin stormed out of the gates and held a 73-point edge (485-412) over Chrest after both players had completed three games. However, Chrest registered 213 points in the fourth game, compared to Natalya’s 134. As a result, Chrest held a slim 625-619 edge going into the final game.
Langevin overcame the narrow deficit by outscoring her rival 157-140. The final score of the tournament was 776 points for Natalya, and 765 points for Chrest.
“I really needed a big mark in the last game,” says Natalya. “In the tenth frame I got a spare and a strike, and she got nothing.”
It was a satisfying victory for a girl that is very keen on improving her performance every time she plays the game. Her father, Andre, says his daughter “is constantly working to improve at her game.”
Her dedication to the sport is a product of her love of the game.
“I have been bowling since I was about five years old,” says Natalya. “I really like bowling.”
The last time Natalya appeared at the national championships was in 2013 at Surrey, B.C. At eight years old, she was the youngest amongst the 13 competitors. She finished with a very respectable sixth place ranking.
The manner in which she has approached her training should allow her to thrive at the 2015 event. In addition to playing every week at Parallel Lanes in St. Paul, her parents arrange matchups against competitors in other towns and cities in order for her to get used to playing in different atmospheres. Some of those locales include Cold Lake, Lac La Biche, Vermillion and Vegreville.
Natalya likes to keep track with how her game is progressing by saving the reports that indicate what her average game score is in a single session of bowling. In her second bowling session of the season, back on Sept. 16 of last year, she posted an average score of 137.03 points. In her most recent session of bowling, which took place on March 24, she posted an average of 151.59 points.
The upcoming tournament will mark the first occasion that Natalya will compete in Ontario. She will play each of the 13 other competitors twice, so she will be facing a schedule of 26 games over the course of three days. Gaining an intimate understanding of how the lanes work could be a difference maker in the results.
Natalya will practice on the lanes a day prior to the tournament in hopes that doing so will give her a competitive edge. This is a strategy she has used at all the major tournaments. It paid dividends at provincials in Calgary.
“I had to tell her to back up a bit as she kept sliding ahead,” says Andre. “If she didn’t back up she would have crossed the line.” Crossing the line in bowling amounts to an automatic 15-point deduction.
While Natalya’s schedule will be quite hectic, she and her family will also spend some time taking in the sights of Ontario. She says Niagara Falls is one of the destinations her family will visit.
Anyone interested in following Natalya’s bid for the bantam female singles championship can visit the Youth Bowling Canada website at youthbowling.ca/ybcnationals for a live stream of the games.
The tournament schedule has yet to be released.
