Wagga tenpin bowlers strike gold at National Disability Championships in Melbourne

The 33rd National Disability Championships were held at Epping in the Victorian capital's north from June 8 to 18.

More than 250 bowlers from across Australia competed at the event.

Bowlers from Wagga's Saturday Morning Bowling League made up a substantial proportion of the NSW team.

The championships were open to people with a broad range of disabilities.

Wagga league treasurer and secretary Wendy Smith said she was proud of the team.

"Given that there were so many bowlers at the event, it's a pretty good effort if you ask me," she said.

"The top score at the championships was a 299 from another NSW bowler, which was one off a perfect score, so there was some pretty high-calibre bowling going on."

Wagga's Danny Sogal was chosen for the Michael Cooke Memorial Shield team and Amy Rennick, Tim St Clair and Peter Smith were chosen to compete for the Cole Cup team trophy.

Mr Sogal was chosen as NSW representative in the Classic Masters and Luke Gorman in the Restricted Masters.

Mr Sogal's workmates call him 'Destroyer Dan, the Pin Slayer' and it's not hard to see why after he scored 232 in one game in Melbourne and took home a gold and multiple silver medals.

"I've been bowling for six years. It was really good to be picked for the NSW team. I like bowling because you get to meet new people," Mr Sogal said.

"I'm going to try out for the championships again next year."

In other news

Mr Sogal said his dream is to meet professional bowler Jason Belmonte, who like Mr Sogal was born in Orange.

Mrs Rennick said it felt good to win a trophy at the championships and hopes to try out again next year.

"It's fun doing bowling and you get to meet a lot of new friends," she said.

Two of the Wagga bowlers also set national records at the event.

Mr St Clair set a new B Grade All Events record of 1631 smashing the old record of 1554 set in the year 2000.

Mr Gorman was in the C Grade Trios that set a new record of 1443 smashing the old record of 1299 set in 2010.

Gold Medals

Silver Medals

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