Hannah, 16 years old, was the youngest member of Junior Team England who bowled in the 2011 European Youth Championships in Munich Germany, over Easter in a week of intense competition between 33 nations. The four girls (Beth Hedley, Watford; Autum Chamberlain, Poole; Hannah Frost, Whitstable and Danielle Gates, Washington) and four boys (Michael Nock, Norwich; Elliot Crosby, Newbury; Chris Lam, Liverpool and Matthew Figett, Norwich) competed in singles, doubles and team events and then a Masters finale.

A spectacular Opening Ceremony in the Dream Bowl Palace, a state of the art bowling centre just 18 months old, started off the Championships.

The Girls’ Doubles was the first event and all the training and hard work paid off for Hannah when she and her partner, Beth Hedley, from Watford won gold. After eight games the two girls qualified fourth for a place in the semi-final which was a one game shoot out against a top class Russian pair, they won that game and went on to beat the second Russian doubles pair in the final to win gold and have the title of:
‘European Doubles Champions’.

The four English girls then went on the win silver in the team event; they beat the Swedish girls, last year’s Champions, in the semi-final; but were beaten by a very strong Finnish team in the final.
The boys also performed well among some awesome competition; Elliot and Michael winning bronze in the Doubles and a second bronze in the Singles for Elliot; and Beth won bronze in the All Events. Five English bowlers finished in the top 24 to make it through to the Masters; Autum, Beth, Michael, Chris and Elliot. There were more medals for England, two more bronzes for Chris and Michael, and to top it all, Autum worked her way through the Masters to become European Champion!

This year was the most successful Championships for England for a number of years and at the end of the competition England topped the medal table winning 2 gold, 1 silver and 5 bronze medals.
All in all it was a fantastic week of competition for England, certainly one Hannah won’t forget!

For more information and photos visit: www.bowling-em.de

    EUROPEAN YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIPS 2011

  Hannah Frost from Whitstable wins Gold And Silver European Medals