An Opening Ceremony took centre stage today before tomorrow sees the first round of matches across a number of competitions.

Bowlers will be vying for gold medals across eight tournaments.

Men and women will square off for World Championship titles in the singles, pairs, triples and fours divisions.

First held in Australia in 1966, the World Bowls Championships for men and women are held every four years. 

The 2012 event, the last edition, was held in Adelaide in Australia where home bowler Leif Selby won the men's singles gold medal and the Scottish pairing of Alex Marshall and Paul Foster took the men's pair title. 

Scotland also won the men's triples but Australia struck gold in the fours and claimed the Leonard Trophy for best overall team.

In the women's events, Australia were dominant as Karen Murphy won the singles event while the hosts also won the pairs and triples crowns and the overall Taylor Trophy. 

Hong Kong teenager Gloria Ha is set to become the youngest player ever to compete at the World Bowls Championships.

The 14-year-old has been selected to represent the territory following some outstanding performances in recent times.

At the National Bocce Elite Lawn Bowls Championship at Quzhou in China last October, the left-hander played lead in Hong Kong’s gold medal winning mixed fours team skipped by Kenny Chan, along with James Tang and Helen Cheung.

Earlier this year, Ha and Amy Choi captured the women’s pairs gold medal in the Dutch Open at Haarlem in The Netherlands.

Doubts over whether the Championships would remain in Christchurch arose after an earthquake was felt across New Zealand earlier this month.

Kerry Clark, the chief executive of Bowls New Zealand and chairman of the Championships Organising Committee reported that all the visitors, including teams and officials, that had already arrived have been confirmed as safe and well. 

The four venues had all buildings and greens inspected and there were no signs of any damage.