JEDDAH: A four-man Saudi bowling team missed competing in the 10th World Youth Bowling Championship in Orlando, Florida in the United States after a delay in the processing of their visas.

Saudi Bowling Federation President Ibrahim Juraifani has blamed the American Embassy in Riyadh for the foul-up, saying, “It’s a shame that the embassy did not show any cooperation and wasted all the athletes’ efforts.”

Juraifani said the bowlers and the rest of the Saudi delegation applied for US visas online as early as May 15 to facilitate their travel to the US, where the championship was scheduled to be held July 18 to 23 at the 80-lane Boardwalk Entertainment Center in Orlando.

He said “We have provided all the documents needed in addition to a letter from the American Bowling Federation proving our qualification and participation, but the embassy disregarded all that.” To their disappointment, Juraifani said the embassy informed them the competition is not an urgent reason and that the time for an interview at the embassy would be on Aug. 16.

“What is the use of the visa if we would be there after the championship which is held every two years!” bewailed Juraifani.

According to Juraifani the four bowlers namely, Al-Shaikh brothers, Bader, 21, and Hassan, 17, Fahad Juraifani, 16, and the youngest, Faisal Sugati, 15, had been working hard for more than four months to qualify and were very disappointed when they learned that they could not compete.

Bader placed fifth in the Masters event in the 9th championship in Germany in 2006 and Tamman Sharif finished second in the singles event in the fifth edition of the tournament in 1998 in South Korea.