FROM THE DON MCDERMOTT COLLECTION Walter Ray Williams Jr. and an opponent, Jim Walters of Troy, compete in a tournament in City Park at Greenville, Ohio, circa 1999. Advertisement

The 83rd World Horseshoe Pitching Championships will run through Aug. 7 in the Hardy Murphy Coliseum at Ardmore, Okla., with four competitors representing Nevada.

The four are:

Chad Wyatt, Men's A-2, 58.0 ringer percentage; Wyatt is from Las Vegas and has competed in Men's A-1 in the past;

Warren Williams, Elders D, 53.11;

Don Gore, Elders F, 45.55;

Virgil Birgen, Elders G, 44.05.

Alan Francis of Defiance, Ohio, is the defending A-1 Men's champion; Joan Elmore of Tennessee prevailed in the women's A-1 Division in 2006. Francis, who is in a quest for his 13th world championship, averages 89.9 percent ringers, with Elmore at 84.9 percent ringers.

Walter Ray Williams Jr., one of professional bowling's leading money winners over the last 10 years, is entered; the California native and Florida resident has won world horseshoe titles, pitching both lefthanded and righthanded.

The men's world championship will be determined Aug. 3-4, with the women in pursuit of the title Aug. 2-3.

In Men's Class A-1 will be Francis (who moved from Missouri to Ohio after he married Ohioan Amy Brown, then one of horseshoe pitching's best women throwers); Williams Jr. (Florida); Shannon Foster (Tennessee); Mark Mauthe (Wisconsin); Stan Griggs (Missouri); Tom Galina (Ontario, Canada); Rick Howe (Rhode Island); Robert Booe (Kansas); Bret Vogel (Kansas); Darrell Sherrard (Indiana); Mark Seibold (Indiana); Jerome McCarty (Alabama); Raymond Bedard (Massachusetts); Duncan McKenzie (Nova Scotia); Rich Pintor (Colorado), and Bert Logsdon (Manitoba).

Francis had a ringer percentage of 89.65 going into the tournament. At 75.64 was Foster; at 74.9 was Williams Jr., and at 74.71 was Mauthe. Williams won his first men's pitching title in 1978, going 34-1; two years later, he went 31-0 to claim the championship.

In Women's A-1 are Elmore; Amy Francis; Sue Snyder (Kentucky); Tamara Burke (West Virginia); Gert Wilcziek (Wisconsin); Debra Odum (Texas); Marlene Ray (Tennessee); Becky Kemper (Kentucky); Rivers Prewette (North Carolina); Sheila Shepard (Colorado); Shalee Cason (Pennsylvania); Renee Cowan (Virginia); Connie Filley (South Dakota); Jane Jordan (South Carolina); Verdell 'J' Woollard (Florida), and Cathy Richards (Texas).

Elmore is averaging 85.54 percent ringers, with Snyder at 84.58, Burke 82.22 and Wilcziek at 82.72.

Champions will be determined in Men, Women, Senior Men, Senior Women, Elders (70 or more years old), Junior Boys, Junior Girls, and Junior Cadets (9 and under).

There is $136,000 in prize money at stake, with 984 pitchers entered from 46 states and five Canadian provinces. There are 50 courts set up inside the Murphy Coliseum.

The youngest thrower is eight-year-old Wyatt Bennett of Crown Point, N.M., with the oldest 87-year-old Tom Small of Wichita, Kan.

NOTES -- The writer of this story covered three world tournaments -- all in Greenville, Ohio -- in 1962, 1964 and 1999 ... He received the Tuttle Award for horseshoe pitching writing following the 1999 tournament, and one of his stories, on world champion Sue Snyder, earned a Brown Publishing Co. award for best sports story of the year ... One of his neighbors growing up in Canton, Ohio, was Ed Sebek, one of the top pitchers in the Buckeye State ... Sebek had horseshoe pits in his backyard, where the neighborhood kids could test their skills. ... Don Weaver is the Nevada competitiion coordinator; he resides in Las Vegas ... State warmups and election of officers for the Nevada association will be held in Tonopah Aug. 25 ...The state tournament is Aug. 26 at the Joe Friel Sports Complex in Tonopah ... Beatty is to host a special tournament Oct. 19-20-21, at a site behind the Death Valley Inn off U.S. Highway 95.