Gross beats Olsen to win men's title in 31st European Champions Cup

10/25/08

2008 ECC

Treff Bowling in Duisburg, Germany (Oct. 20-26, 2006)

2008ECCGrossFamily.jpg Thomas Gross (pictured left) from Austria improved on a second-place finish from last year when defeated Svein Roger Olsen, Norway, two-games-to-one, to win the men's title in the 31st European Champions Cup at Treff Bowling in Duisburg, Germany.

Pictured left: The highly successful Gross family gold medalist Thomas Gross, his wife Ivonne, bronze medalist in the women's ECC and little Fabian Gross. All pictures Beat Grauwiler.


2008ECCSveinRogerOlsen_small.jpg Gross, who bowls for Duisburg in the German Bundesliga, won a low-scoring encounter on the short oil pattern, 168-154, but Olsen (right) rebounded with a 201-192 win to force a feciding game.

Left: Austrian Head Coach Helmut Amstätter's reaction after ECC Thomas Gross placed the heavy trophy on his head during the award ceremonies.

Back on the short oil, both players struggled again but at least the game was close and was decided in the final frames. Leading by some 20 pins, Gross opened in the 8th frame to open the door for Olsen, Working on a strike, the Norwegian spared the 3-4-7 split but another big split (2-8-10) which resulted in an open frame sealed his fate. Gross sealed the victory with a strike in the 10th frame for 197-169.

2008ECCSamiKonsteri_small.jpg 2008ECCMathiasArup_small.jpg In the semifinals, Olsen, the No. 7 seed, upset top seeded Sami Konsteri (left), Finland, 2-0, while Gross, seeded third, made quick work of No. 5 Swede Mathias Årup, 2-0. Konsteri was ranked third and Årup was ranked fourth based on their seedings, but both players shared the bronze medal.

The top 8 countries based on the final stndings qualified for the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung, Chinese Taipei.

1. Austria, 4
2. Finland, 5
3. England, 6
4. Germany, 11
5. Belgium, 13
6. France, 15
7. Norway, 15
8. Netherlands, 16

9. South Africa, 24
10. Denmark, 26
11. Greece, 26
12. Northern Ireland, 30
13. Ireland, 35
14. Italy, 35
15. Latvia, 38
16. Malta, 38
17. Russia, 38
18. Turkey, 40
19. Belarus, 41
20. Iceland, 41
21. Catalonia, 42
22. Israel, 42
23. Scotland, 42
24. Sweden, 43
25. Ukraine, 44
26. Czech Republic, 48
27. Guernsey, 50
28. Poland, 51
29. Moldova, 53
30. Switzerland, 55
31. Estonia, 61
32. Slovakia, 62
33. Cyprus, 64
34. Lithuania, 64
35. Luxembourg, 64
36. Slovenia, 65
37. Hungary, 67
38. Romania, 71
39. Bulgaria, 75


2008ECCLogo_small.jpg 2008ECCTreffBowlingLogo_small.jpg The ECC features the national champions or ranking leaders - one man and one woman per country - of the European Tenpin Bowling Federation member federations plus the defending champions.

All players bowled three 8-game blocks (a total of 24 games) preliminaries over three days: Block 1 on short oil, Block 2 on long oil and Block 3 on short/long oil (left lane short, right lane long).

The top 8 players after the preliminaries qualified for the single-elimination final in best-of-three games format. In each round the highest seeded player bowled the lowest seeded player 2nd highest vs. the 2nd lowest, etc.) based on the preliminaries.


31st European Champions Cup - Men's Finals


Single-elimination, best-of-three games.