Putul Sonowal from Assam won the bronze medal in men’s singles at the 2026 World Bowls Champion of Champions held from 6 to 10 October 2026 at Club Barham in New South Wales, Australia. The 43-year-old Assam Police havildar and reigning Asian singles champion lost his semifinal to Scotland’s Iain McLean but secured India’s first ever medal at this event. His breakthrough caps a breakout 2026 season that also included Asian gold and a stunning win over world champion Ryan Bester at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
Putul Sonowal’s Historic Bronze at Barham
Putul Sonowal entered the 2026 World Bowls Champion of Champions as India’s national men’s singles champion and the reigning Asian men’s singles champion. The 2026 edition was played at Club Barham in Barham, New South Wales, Australia from 6 to 10 October 2026 as part of the World Bowls Series. The event gathered 58 players from 34 nations, with every player qualifying by winning their national singles title at home.
Sonowal topped his preliminary section after winning five of his six early matches and then winning his final Section 1 match against Botswana’s Edwin Nyoka Jnr. He then defeated Singapore’s Harriman Yuen in the quarterfinal to guarantee a medal. The quarterfinal was tight and was decided across close sets before Sonowal closed it out to move into the last four. This result itself was historic because Sonowal had lost in the quarterfinals at the 2025 edition in Barham and at other major world events before.
In the semifinal on 10 October 2026, the Bowling Federation of India player faced Scotland’s Iain McLean, the world number three and former Champion of Champions winner from 2014. McLean controlled the match and won in straight sets by 8 to 5 and 8 to 4. The Champion of Champions does not hold a separate bronze medal playoff, so both losing semifinalists receive bronze. McLean went on to beat Australia’s Max Kleinig in the final to lift the men’s title, while New Zealand’s Mandy Boyd won the women’s title.
Sonowal is 43 years old and serves as a havildar with the Assam Police. He took up lawn bowls only in late 2011 after earlier training in kickboxing and boxing, on the advice of fellow villager and bowler Bima Boro. Within a year he broke into the Assam state team. His 2026 rise has been sharp. He won men’s singles gold at the 17th Asian Lawn Bowls Championship in New Delhi in April 2026 and added a bronze in men’s triples at the same event, and he entered Glasgow ranked around World No. 21.
What Is Lawn Bowls and How Is It Played?
Lawn bowls is a precision target sport played on a flat grass or synthetic surface called a green. Players roll biased balls called bowls toward a small white or yellow target ball called the jack or kitty. The player whose bowls finish closest to the jack scores points called shots.
The green is divided into parallel playing strips called rinks. Each match starts with the mat, a rectangular rubber pad from which players deliver their bowls. One player rolls the jack, which must travel at least 23 metres to stay in play, and the jack is then centred on the rink to become the target for that round of play, called an end.
The bowl is larger than the jack, between 112 mm and 134 mm in diameter, and is deliberately weighted on one side. This uneven weight is called bias and makes the bowl travel in a curved path rather than a straight line. Players therefore must judge both line and weight, meaning direction and speed. Bowls may swing outside the rink boundary but must come to rest inside it to stay live. Bowls that fall into the ditch at the end of the green are normally removed, unless they touched the jack on the way and were marked as touchers.
Lawn Bowls Scoring System and Singles Format
Scoring in lawn bowls is simple once all bowls in an end are delivered. After both players have rolled their bowls, officials count how many bowls of one player sit closer to the jack than the opponent’s nearest bowl. That player gets one shot for each such bowl, and only one player scores in any end. Play then turns around and the next end is bowled in the opposite direction.
The number of bowls and ends depends on the format. In singles, each player usually delivers four bowls per end. Traditional singles matches are often played to 21 shots, while major modern events use sets and tiebreaks to shorten play. At the 2026 Champion of Champions, men’s matches were decided in sets, which is why semifinal scores are shown as set scores such as 8 to 5 rather than a single running total.
What Is the World Bowls Champion of Champions?
The World Bowls Champion of Champions is an annual international singles tournament run by World Bowls, the global governing body for the sport. The event was launched in 2003. Each member nation sends its current national men’s and women’s singles champions, so the field is a direct contest between national champions rather than invited players.
The 2026 tournament belongs to the World Bowls Series calendar. The World Bowls Series groups the sport’s leading global events in one season, including the Champion of Champions, the World Indoor Championships and the World Cup. The 2026 Champion of Champions welcomed national champions to Club Barham for section play followed by knockout quarterfinals, semifinals and finals for men and women.
India had never reached the podium at this event before Sonowal’s bronze. Sonowal had finished in the quarterfinals in 2025, so his 2026 semifinal appearance marked a clear step forward. The recent men’s roll of honour shows how competitive the field is, with a different winner almost every year.
| Year | Venue | Men’s Champion |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Naenae, New Zealand | Sam Tolchard (England) |
| 2023 | Robina, Australia | Daniel Salmon (Wales) |
| 2024 | Auckland, New Zealand | Lee Schraner (Australia) |
| 2025 | Barham, Australia | David Copeland (Ireland) |
| 2026 | Barham, Australia | Iain McLean (Scotland) |
Is Lawn Bowls an Olympic Sport?
Lawn bowls is not an Olympic sport. The sport is not on the Olympic programme for Paris 2024, Los Angeles 2028 or Brisbane 2032, though World Bowls continues to campaign for future Olympic and Paralympic inclusion.
The biggest multi sport stage for lawn bowls is the Commonwealth Games. Bowls is one of the six original Commonwealth Games sports and has featured at every Games since 1930, except Kingston 1966 when no greens were available. The sport is treated as a core sport and is already confirmed for the 2030 Commonwealth Games in Ahmedabad.
The Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, held from 23 July to 2 August 2026, gave bowls a special profile. Bowls and Para Bowls opened the sporting programme and were played indoors for the first time in 96 years to make the action more compact for spectators. Glasgow hosted four bowls medal events in men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s pairs and women’s pairs, alongside three Para Bowls pairs events.
Sonowal made his Commonwealth Games debut at Glasgow 2026 in men’s singles, with a field of 26 nations. He stunned Canada’s Ryan Bester, the reigning World Outdoor champion and three time Commonwealth Games medallist, in sectional play. Sonowal took the first set 5 to 4, dropped the second 3 to 7, and then held his nerve in the tiebreak. The win was rated the biggest victory of his career at that stage and set the tone for his later medal run in Barham.
Lawn Bowls in India From Birmingham Gold to Barham Bronze
Lawn bowls in India is governed by the Bowling Federation of India (BFI). The BFI was formed on 21 November 1985 and affiliated to the Indian Olympic Association and to World Bowls in 1990. The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports granted official recognition to the BFI as the national federation for lawn bowls in April 2026. The federation’s stated aim is to spread greens and state associations across India and to raise standards to world level before major home Games.
India’s landmark moment came at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. The women’s fours team of Lovely Choubey, Pinki Singh, Nayanmoni Saikia and Rupa Rani Tirkey beat South Africa 17 to 10 in the final at Victoria Park in Royal Leamington Spa to win India’s first ever Commonwealth Games medal in lawn bowls, and it was gold. The sport has been played in India since colonial times, with early greens centred at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club, but national championships began only in 2007 and India first competed at the New Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games.
That Birmingham gold lifted the sport’s profile. India then hosted the 17th Senior and 15th Under 25 Asian Lawn Bowls Championships in New Delhi in April 2026 and finished as overall champions with four gold, one silver and four bronze medals. Sonowal won men’s singles gold, Nayanmoni Saikia won women’s singles gold, and six players from Assam were part of the 14 member Indian squad. Assam, along with West Bengal, Delhi and Odisha, now hosts some of India’s few playable greens.
Growth remains uneven because playing conditions in India differ sharply from fast Australian or British greens. Sonowal has spoken about this gap and said Indian players rarely get to practise daily on international standard surfaces. His bronze at Barham therefore matters beyond the individual result. With bowls confirmed as a core sport for Ahmedabad 2030 and under consideration for wider Asian level inclusion, Indian officials see his medal as proof that Indian singles players can reach world podiums despite limited infrastructure.
Key Takeaways
- Putul Sonowal became the first Indian to win a medal at the World Bowls Champion of Champions, with bronze in men’s singles at Barham in 2026.
- Sonowal lost the 2026 semifinal to Scotland’s Iain McLean by 8 to 5 and 8 to 4, and McLean went on to win the men’s title.
- Sonowal is a 43-year-old havildar with the Assam Police who took up lawn bowls in 2011 and won Asian singles gold in New Delhi in 2026.
- The World Bowls Champion of Champions, launched in 2003, is open only to reigning national singles champions.
- Lawn bowls is not an Olympic sport but has been part of the Commonwealth Games since 1930, except in 1966, and is confirmed for Ahmedabad 2030.
- India’s first Commonwealth Games lawn bowls medal was gold in women’s fours at Birmingham 2022 won by Lovely Choubey, Pinki Singh, Nayanmoni Saikia and Rupa Rani Tirkey.
