Natasha Roslan takes IBF World Cup silver in Munich as France's Manon Clement ends title defence
Malaysia's Natasha Mohamed Roslan lost a three-game women's singles final to France's Manon Clement at the IBF World Cup, with the team event still to come.
Malaysian bowler Natasha Mohamed Roslan won silver at the IBF World Cup near Munich after losing the women's singles final 2-1 to France's Manon Clement on Sunday. Natasha came in as defending champion after winning the title in Hong Kong last year. She forced a deciding game at Max Munich Bowling in Brunnthal but lost it.
A three-game final
The final was a best-of-three-games match. Clement won the opening game with a 231. Natasha levelled with a 206 to 147 win in the second game. Clement then won the decider 204-168 to take gold.
Natasha's run to the final included a 2-1 quarter-final win over Denmark's Karen Kaergaard Nielsen, in which she won the last two games with scores of 216 and 196. She then beat Sweden's Nora Johansson in the semi-finals. Johansson and Shannon Pluhowsky of the United States shared the women's bronze medals. Pluhowsky lost her semi-final to Clement.
Defending a historic title
Natasha's win in Kowloon in 2025 made her the first Malaysian woman to win the IBF World Cup singles title. In that final she beat Germany's Birgit Noreiks in straight games. Before her, the only Malaysian singles champion was Syafiq Ridhwan, who won the men's title in Wroclaw, Poland, in 2012.
Losing in the final means she misses out on back-to-back titles, but reaching the final again still marks her out as one of the world's leading women bowlers. She is 28.
Men's singles: Jovi Ma wins gold
The men's singles title went to Hong Kong, China's Jovi Ma, who beat France's Gregory Rius in the final. Mathijs Beverdam of the Netherlands and Mathias Danielsen Otting of Norway took bronze. The 2025 men's champion was China's Du Jianchao.
This year's World Cup drew 292 bowlers from 48 federations: 192 men and 100 women. The singles competition started with round-robin pools before moving to a 32-player knockout bracket, with best-of-three matches from the round of 32 onwards.
Team competition next, with Malaysia defending the men's title
The World Cup continues with team events. Countries combine their singles points to decide team seedings, but every team starts from zero. Teams of four bowlers play in the baker format, where team-mates take turns bowling frames in a single shared game.
The team round-robin is scheduled for 19 and 20 October, and the team finals day for 21 October. Malaysia start as defending men's team champions after winning that title in Hong Kong last year. The United States are defending the women's team title. Munich is six hours behind Malaysia, so the later sessions will finish in the early hours of the morning in Malaysia.
Key takeaways
- Natasha Mohamed Roslan won women's singles silver at the 2026 IBF World Cup in Brunnthal, near Munich.
- France's Manon Clement beat her 2-1 in the final, winning the decider 204-168.
- Natasha was defending the title she won in Hong Kong in 2025, when she became Malaysia's first women's champion at the event.
- Malaysia's men defend their team title in Munich from 19 to 21 October.
FAQ
Who beat Natasha Roslan in the IBF World Cup final? France's Manon Clement beat her 2-1 in the women's singles final on 18 October 2026. Natasha won the second game, but Clement won the first and third.
Has a Malaysian won the IBF World Cup before? Yes. Natasha won the women's singles title in Hong Kong in 2025, and Syafiq Ridhwan won the men's title in Poland in 2012. Malaysia also won the men's team title in 2025.
What is left at the 2026 IBF World Cup? The team competition: a round-robin on 19 and 20 October, then the team finals on 21 October.
Sources: Bernama, Bowling Life, BOWL.com, Wikipedia