Ilhammar and Clifton Crowned Champions at the IBF Youth World Cup 2025

Robin Ilhammar and Samantha Clifton | Photos by: bowlinglife.eu and tenpin.org

The IBF Youth World Cup 2025 came to a thrilling conclusion on Saturday at Olympia Bowling in Helsingborg, where Sweden’s Robin Ilhammar and Australia’s Samantha Clifton claimed the gold medals in the male and female divisions.

For Robin Ilhammar, it was a storybook finish on home soil. The 21-year-old Swede entered the finals as the fourth seed after match play but quickly proved unstoppable in the knockout rounds. He opened the quarterfinals with a clean 2–0 sweep over Denmark’s Nicolas Carter, then met Finland’s Luukas Väänänen in the semifinals—a rematch of their Masters clash at the recent European Men’s Championships. Just like in that match, Ilhammar came out on top in two straight games.

In the championship match, Ilhammar faced Ondrej Prekop of the Czech Republic, who had just edged out Singapore’s Brian Ngoi in a tough 2–1 semifinal. But the final was all Ilhammar. He exploded out of the gates with a 276–205 win in Game 1, then followed it up with a near-perfect 295–161 in Game 2. The Swedish star flirted with a perfect game—mirroring his 300 in last year’s final—but left a few pins standing in the end. Still, with a 285.5 average across the final match, he defended his 2024 Youth World Cup title in spectacular fashion and capped off his junior career with a golden finish.

In the female division, it was Samantha Clifton of Australia who rose to the top. After navigating a tough semifinal against Denmark’s Karen K. Nielsen, Clifton locked in during the title match against Costa Rica’s Elena Weinstok. She stayed calm and consistent, taking both games in the final to win the series 2–0 and bring the trophy back Down Under. Nielsen, who had bowled well throughout the week, secured bronze with a straight-games win over Singapore’s Shi En Lim in the third-place match.