“Like in a dream” – Viljoen beats world number one

Namibian bowler Diana Viljoen grabbed the headlines at the World Bowls Indoor Championships in Aberdeen, Scotland last week when she beat the world’s top-ranked player Kelsey Cottrell of Australia. 

Viljoen and compatriot Christo Steenkamp represented Namibia at the championships, and although neither made much of an impact in the final standings, Viljoen’s superb performance against Cottrell was one of the highlights of the tournament. 

Going into the match Viljoen had lost all five her previous matches and was not expected to provide much of a challenge, but she produced a stunning display of near perfect bowls to upset the world’s top-ranked player in straight sets 6-5, 9-5. 

It was a stunning upset and Viljoen later said it was her best-ever performance. 

“When I played my final game against Kelsey Cottrell, who was not only Australia’s champion, but also the world’s number one ranked bowler, I just played my absolute best bowls, like in a dream, and I beat her in both sets. Beating such a champion was just such an honour and I had a fantastic time,” she said. 

“Christo and I played in the mixed pairs as well as in the singles coming up against the champions of each country, and what an honour it was to play there on an absolutely perfect surface,” she added.

Viljoen said the scoring system was a ‘bit cruel’:

“I must say the scoring system, not playing a full game, but playing sets-play can come across as a bit cruel, because it’s quite fast and going into a tie-breaker is absolutely nerve-wrecking and something that will give you nightmares.

“Christo did extremely well in the singles – he managed to win a couple of his games, but unfortunately only the top two in each group went through to the knockout stages,” she added. 

Earlier, Viljoen had lost all four her opening matches 3-0 against Rahsan Akar of Turkey, Connie Rixon of Malta, Rachel Macdonald of Jersey and Linda Ng of Canada, before suffering a narrow 3-2 defeat to Giulia Gallo of USA. 

In the women’s singles final, Sophie McGrouther of Scotland beat Emily Kernick of England 3-0. 

In the men’s singles competition, Steenkamp beat Jan Sinnema of the Netherlands and Takashi Ohira of Japan 3-0, but lost 3-0 to Jack McShane of Australia, Stewart Anderson of Scotland, Anthony So of Hong Kong, Johnny Ng of Macao, China and Muhammad Ayub of Pakistan.

Jack McShane of Australia won the men’s singles title after beating Dominic McVittie of England 3-0 in the final. 

In the mixed pairs competition Steenkamp and Viljoen lost all four their matches 3-0 to Botswana, the Netherlands, France and Israel. 

In the mixed pairs final, England beat Wales 3-0.