Bermuda's Dean Lightbourn pulled out of the AMF World Bowling Championships yesterday through illness.

It was not immediately apparent what was wrong with the Island's top bowler, who at one stage was as high as 29th among the competitors in Pattaya, Thailand. He had slipped to 59th after 24 games.

Lightbourn, who has travelled to numerous international events in the past, was up against bowlers from 95 countries, eight more than competed in Lisbon, Portugal last year.

Scott Norton, a 19-year-old college student from Utah who rolled the first perfect game of tournament yesterday morning, is the men's frontrunner after the first 24 games.

Norton's 5,361 total pinfall placed him just seven pins ahead of Ryan Lalisang of Indonesia, who withstood 1999 AMF Bowling World Cup champion Ahmed Shaheen of Qatar to hold onto second place. Lalisang totalled 5,354 pins for his first 24 games compared to Shaheen's 5,315.

Kirsten Penny of England is the women's leader, with 1,766 pins and a 220.8 average. The top 24 women, following this morning's action, return tomorrow for 16 additional games.

The AMF World Cup claims to be the largest international sports competition in terms of participating countries.

Among those taking part for the first time this year are Ivory Coast, Lebanon, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Laos, Palestine, St. Helena, Syria and Vietnam.