2009 Australian Junior Championships

New South Wales may have taken out the 2009 Australian Juniors title, but individual performances from young bowlers in other States dominate the headlines.

For the first time in the history of the Junior Championships, one State won the Female, Male and Overall Championships, with NSW winning medals in seven of the eight disciplines - 2 gold, 4 silver, 1 bronze.

Queensland's Carly Griffiths claimed back to back girls singles titles, equalling the feat of Kelsey Cotrell back in 2006. Kelsey of course has gone on to win this years World Champion of Champions, so big things beckon for 17 year old Carly. Carly teamed up with Zoe Jones to make the pairs final, going down to NSW pair of Sarah Boddington and Sarah Vesenjak. In the triples Griffiths again had a narrow defeat in the final, going down 19-18 to NSW. Zoe Jones picked up gold in the fours alongside Kirsty DeWaard, Lauren Ingham and Shahn Griffiths. It was the last junior championships for Carly and Zoe with both girls turning 18 before next year's tournament, however they are both members of the Maroon's under 25 squad.

The Queensland boys triples side took gold, with Scott DeJongh, Braiden Leese and Ben Savva defeating NSW 18-14. Queensland came second overall in the tournament.

Victoria took out 3rd place with the highlight being a strong performance by their boys fours of Matthew Reneex, Aaron Wilson, Ben McArthur and Dane McKinnon who fought back from 5-12 down to overcome NSW 21-12 to take gold. It was the first time in 12 years that the Victorians had won the fours. In the boys pairs, the very talented Dylan Fisher was in line to achieve a record gold medal in three successive championships, but with team mate Aaron Wilson went down to the ACT in the final to settle with silver.The girls team started slow but powered home to show promise for next year. Lisa Phillips took out bronze in the girls singles.

The boys singles title was taken out by Western Australia's Cody Packer who overcame the Northern Territory's Martin Miller 21-15. WA had it's best overall finish at the Championships, taking out bronze in the boys pairs and triples and finishing equal third overall.