Aquilina extended his winning run to nine matches after defeating South Africa's Wayne Ritmuller 8-8, 9-6 and Bob Schneider of the United States 6-6, 9-6 in the men's section two.

He has only two more sectional matches to play before the semi-finals and finals.

Kelly won his only match today - 8-4, 11-4 against Hong Kong's Tony Cheung - to extend his winning run to eight, with three section one matches to play.

The World Cup is a World Bowls-sanctioned international indoor singles event featuring male and female competitors from 24 countries.

It is being held at the Warilla Bowls and Recreation Club in the seaside suburb of Shellharbour, New South Wales.

Home favourite and defending champion Jeremy Henry is still looking a strong bet to earn a seventh title, having lost only one match so far in section two - to Aquilina, 12-5, 6-9, 3-2.

Today he brought his record to eight wins from nine as he beat Japan's Junji Goda 13-1, 13-3 and Jamaica's Mervyn Edwards 12-5, 16-2.

New Zealand's Seamus Curtin is also looking strong in section one, where he extended his record to seven wins from eight by defeating Henry’s Warilla clubmate Aaron Teys in a tough match, 5-8, 9-6, 4-1.

His only defeat so far has been to Kelly.

After seven rounds of play the women's section one and two are headed respectively by Siti Zalina Ahmad of Malaysia and Colleen Piketh of South Africa.

Piketh had a 14-5, 20-1 win over Dee McSparran of the United States and then beat Shae Wilson of Norfolk Island 9-6, 12-3 to extend her record to six wins out of seven.

Favourite Jo Edwards, of New Zealand, has also won six out of seven in section two, adding further victories today over Hong Kong’s Phyllis Wong, by 5-10, 10-4, 4-0, and Switzerland’s Marianne Kuenzle, 11-3, 9-3.

Ahmad won her first match of the day, 9-5, 7-7 against Australia’s Rebecca Van Asch, but lost her second to Scotland’s Carla Banks, 8-6, 14-4.