When Nanaimo’s Mikayla Eby bowls, her world stands still, her eyes focus on her target, and her entire body follows.
Bowling with her family since she was just four years old, Eby is now a finely tuned technician of the five-pin game.
But Saturday night in Nanaimo, the 23-year-old achieved a first. It was something never before accomplished in Nanaimo by a woman, and the joyful redhead was surrounded by her cheering family as she realized she was about to make history.
“It was pure excitement. It was so nice to have my dad right there. It was really cool to bowl that in front of him,” Eby told CHEK News.
“I was just full of emotion for her because it is quite amazing,” said Eby’s aunt Carla Burgmann, who watched the perfect game unfold.
According to Eby, it felt like any other night at Brechin Lanes, and she was nine games into an all-nighter 20-game marathon when she started making strike after heart-racing strike. She didn’t miss once and downed 12 sets to take the title of holder of the first-ever “perfect game.”
“It was amazing, just because I’ve bowled my whole life, and just it’s an unbelievable feat to achieve. I’ve never done it myself. Come close a couple times,” said Burgmann.
“This is the first perfect game by a female bowler in five-pin bowling ever in Nanaimo, certainly the first here at Brechin Lanes and only the second one ever on Vancouver Island,” said Ray Britain, owner of Brechin Lanes.
“It’s cool that my names going to be head of the leader board for that, that’s pretty cool,” said Eby.
Wendy Boudot has been coaching Eby in bowling since she was four and said it’s the proudest feeling she can describe.
“I’ve been up at the bowling alley for 45 years, coaching for 42 of those 45. Never seen a perfect game by a woman before, no,” Boudot told CHEK News.
So, this accomplishment is making Nanaimo’s entire bowling community proud.
“It inspires me to do better in bowling and practice more,” said 13-year-old Nanaimo resident Kasha Houlding, who has been bowling for two years.
Eby is now setting her sights even higher with the Canadian National Bowling Championships, the next goal she plans to strike.
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@chek.news A perfect game! History is made in Nanaimo! Congratulations Mikayla Eby! 🎳
Skye Ryan
