Aero Stars dominate new Official World Rankings

Team AERO ace Wayne Roberts leads the way for South Africa following the release of the first edition of the Official World Rankings.

Roberts has been in a rich vein of form for the past few seasons and his steadfast skills have seen him rewarded with 10th place.

Since winning two Gold medals at the African States, the KZN star won silver at the BSA Masters in 2024 at Wingate Park and then gold at the SA Men’s Nationals following a commanding singles victory over Paul White.

Gerry Baker was quick to congratulate Roberts and his peers on their achievement, he said: “It’s great to see the game moving forward … obviously Wayne has been in good form and the results have tallied up nicely. He should be very proud of this and go on to the Champion of Champions later in the year full of confidence.”

Baker, himself a legend of the game, added: “It’s impressive to see AERO dominating with the top 3 all playing AERO bowls and then all the South Africans inside the top 50 all part of Team AERO.”

Fellow Team Aero members Niksa Benguric is 39th and holder of the BSA Masters title, Jason Evans, is 47th. Both will be hoping to play their way into every qualifying event as they look to move up the rankings.

The Men’s rankings are led by Aron Sherriff, Corey Wedlock and Aaron Teys. The power Australian trio are all Team AERO players as well.

South Africa has one representative in the Women’s top 50 with AERO star Esme Kruger in 41st.

A full list of the top 50 players from the Official World Rankings are now live on the World Bowls Series website – www.worldbowlsseries.com – with information on the events that have contributed to these rankings also available.

The WBS is the official year-long calendar of sanctioned events connecting to the official World Rankings. It is a joint venture between World Bowls and Tier 5 Ventures. The sanctioned events occur across the globe and include a mixture of current and new events.

WBS commenced in 2024 with twenty-nine (29) sanctioned events with each WBS event belonging to a different tier based on the size, location and stature it presents for the game of Bowls.

The purpose of WBS is to build the profile and brand of bowls, showcase the best players in the game, accelerate the legitimacy of the sport on the global stage and launch World Rankings that will create clarity, and interest in the sport of Bowls.

Later in 2024, WBS will be launching rankings for Para Bowlers where the participation and profile is increasing across the World.