Clara Guerrero leads 48 players into Sunday's finals in 3rd Track Dream-Bowl Palace Open

    04/29/12

    2012 European Bowling Tour #7

    Colombian rolls 1436 series in last qualifying squad; initial cut is 1338 (223 average)

    2012EBT04ClaraGuerrero.jpg2012EBT04TomHessPaulMoor2.jpgColombian national team member Clara Juliana Guerrero (pictured left) posted a 1436 six-game series in the last qualifying squad of the 3rd Track Dream-Bowl Palace Open to lead a group of 48 players into Sunday's finals at Dream Bowl Palace in Munich, Germany.

    The two-time World Champion and World Ranking Masters winner had games of 245, 246, 257, 214, 177 and 249 for 1388, an average of 231.33, and added 48 pins women's handicap to lead the field of 219 players from 26 countries.

    By qualifying in the top eight, Guerrero earned two byes for the finals. Three-time European Bowling Tour point ranking leader, Paul Moor (right), England, led Squad 9 on Saturday morning with 1429 including six games between 221 and 259 to finish qualifying in second place.

    201011PBASeanRash.jpg2012EBT04SyafiqRidhwan.jpgPrevious leader Sean Rash (left), United States, a five-time PBA champion, who has won the PBA Tournament of Champions two weeks ago, slipped to third place with 1426. Squad 10 leader Syafiq Ridhwan (right), Malaysia, was tied with Krista Pöllänen, Finland, at 1425. The Malaysian national team member took over fourth place due to the higher last game, 263 to 245.

    Sixth place belonged to the best German player in the field, Michael Holzapfel, who toppled 1421 pins. Rounding out the top 8 were England's PBA champions Dominic Barrett and Stuart Williams with 1419 and 1408, respectively.

    2012EBT04OskuPalermaa2.jpg2011EBT04ZandraAziela.jpgPlayers ranked 9 to 16 earned one bye for the finals. Defending champion Osku Palermaa (left), Finland, hit the cutoff number for 16th place with 1374. The two-hander targets to win back-to-back EBT titles after winning the 6th QubicaAMF Open last weekend.

    Zandra Aziela (right), Malaysia, who led Squad 11, tied Martin Klitte at 1348. The Dane, who rolled the lone 300 game of the tournament so far, finished qualifying in 33rd place due to his higher last game, 219-218.

    2012EBT04BirgitPoppler.jpg2011EBT17AchimGrabowski.jpgCurrent European Bowling Tour women's point ranking leader Birgit Pöppler (left), Germany, took the 43rd and last place to advance with 1338 including handicap.

    Her compatriot Rainer Köpf, who led the opening squad Wednesday afternoon with 1331, was the only squad leader below the cut line. As all squad leaders automatically qualified for the finals, Köpf was seeded 44th.

    The last four spots for the finals went to the top four players of the single-game Desperado Squad. Multiple German Bowler of the Year, Achim Grabowski (right) fired a huge 277 game and was followed by Swedish international Peter Ljung (256), Dutch international Ghislaine van der Tol (250 including eight pins handicap) and Icelandic international Hafthor Hardarson (246).

    2012TrackDBPOpenLogo_small.jpg The 3rd Track Dream-Bowl Palace Open is the seventh stop of the 2012 European Bowling Tour and the third out of eight EBT "Silver" tournaments this season. The tournament will be held from April 25-29 at 52-lane Dream Bowl Palace in Unterföhring, a suburb of Munich, Germany and offers total prize fund of 50.000 Euro with 7.000 Euro going to the winner, 3.000 Euro to the runner-up and 4.000 and 2.000 Euro to the third and fourth place finisher, respectively.

    Qualifying of the 3rd Track Dream-Bowl Palace Open ran from Wednesday April 25 through Saturday, April 28. Women receive 8 pins handicap each game, a standard for women on the European Bowling Tour.

    A total of 48 players including all squad winners and the top 4 of the Desperado Squad qualified for the finals on Sunday, April 29. The top 8 qualifiers receive two byes, while qualifiers 9-16 bypass the first round of the finals.

    Three four-game rounds each starting from scratch will trim the field to 32, 20 and then eight players, who will determine the champion in single-elimination match play rounds. In each round over two games decided by total pinfall, the highest seeded player meets the lowest seeded player, the second-highest meets the second-lowest, and so on.

    Following April 30 and May 1 at the same venue will be the 5th EBT Masters featuring the top 16 men and women of the 2011 EBT season.

    2012EBTLogo_small.jpg The 2012 European Bowling Tour is made up of 21 events in 16 countries including two Platinum, four Gold, eight Silver and seven Satellite tournaments.

    The top 50 men and the top 50 women in each event earn ranking points based on how they finish in the event. The winner of a Platinum tournament receives 250 ranking points, the winner of a Gold tournament gets 150, the winner of a Silver tournament such as the 3rd Track Dream-Bowl Palace Open earns 100, and the winner of a Satellite tournament gets 50 ranking points.

    Those points will be tabulated throughout the season to determine the top 16 men and top 16 women who will compete in the sixth EBT Masters in Bratislava, Slovakia in Sept. 2013.

     


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    Standings after Qualifying and Desperado Squad


    The top 48 players including all squad winners (boldface) and the top 4 of the Desperado Squad (places 45-48) advance to the finals.

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