By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor
The United States contingent captured the team gold medal and gold, silver and bronze medals in pairs competition at the 2022 Black Bass World Championship, held this past weekend at Lake Murray in South Carolina.
Nineteen nations and 65 angler pairs participated in the three-day event, which was designed to promote the sport across the globe with the ultimate goal of achieving inclusion in the Olympic Games. Scott Martin served as captain of the American team, which also included Scott Canterbury, Fred Roumbanis, James Watson, Mark Rose, Anthony Gagliardi, Jacob Wheeler and David Dudley.
Originally slated to be an annual affair, this was the first BBWC since 2019, when it was staged in Mexico. The COVID-19 pandemic caused the cancellation of the 2020 and 2021 editions.
"This thing has been awesome, man," said Martin. "We had some pretty good momentum going before COVID hit and we're just getting the ball rolling again. It's really cool to think about what this could turn into from a participation and sponsorship standpoint. We might be close to tapped out in the U.S. – I mean, the sport's not going to triple in size here – but if you want to make it a global sport that's recognized around the world, this is the only way.
Scott Martin served as captain of the U.S. team at Lake Murray.
"The anglers from other countries have a very high skill level and their dedication is equal to ours. They understand fishing, they know how to read maps and they're just super-passionate."
South Africa won the silver medal and Italy took the bronze. Serbia and Romania rounded out the Top 5.
Other nations that competed were Germany, Spain, South Korea, Canada, Australia, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Eswatini, Zambia, Portugal, Mexico, Croatia, the Philippines and Puerto Rico.
The U.S. also won the concurrent Zone Americas competition against Canada, Venezuela, Mexico and Puerto Rico.
The duo of Roumbanis and Watson fished all three legs (days) of the event and compiled 50.75 pounds – an average of almost 17 pounds per day to claim the gold medal for pairs. They topped the standings on each of the first two days and were fourth on the final day.
Gagliardi and Rose were next with 45.87 pounds, posting second-place showings on all three days. Martin and Canterbury filled the third American slot for the first two days before giving way to Jacob Wheeler and David Dudley for the final leg. That combined slot had finishes of third, eighth and sixth.
Martin and Canterbury, the two Bassmaster Elite Series anglers on the American squad, were operating at a disadvantage as they could share information between themselves, but not with the other six team members. The lake is on the Elite Series schedule for next year, and thus Martin and Canterbury were restricted under the tour's no-information rule.
Next year's event is slated to take place in Portugal. It'll return to the Americas for 2024, with Hot Springs, Ark. serving as the host city.
For more about the BBWC, including full final standings and statistics for each competition day, click here. The standings may be somewhat confusing for American BassFans due to weights being represented in grams and the points compiled by the teams indicated as "penalties." In the latter category, as in golf, the lower the total, the better.
