For the third time this season Nina Flack (pictured left) won the women's rankings in a European Bowling Tour tournament. The Swedish national team member, who defeated Norwegian Tore Torgersen (right) in the title match of the 5th Oltremare Columbia 300 Open, received 100 ranking points to overtake the lead in the women's standings with 644 points.

Torgersen moved up one spot to second place in the men's rankings with 593 points narrowing the gap to leader Osku Palermaa from Finland to 64 points.

The Oltremare tournament was the last EBT Major of the 2008 EBT season. The final two event, English Open and Qatar Open, are Challenger events and offer half the points of a major event (50 for the winner, 40 for the runner-up, 35 for third, 30 for fourth).

With maximum 100 points at stake in the season ending events, both leaders, Flack and Palermaa, hold a comfortable lead in their respective division and are on course to finish the 2008 ranking season atop the leaderboard. Especially Flack has a strong position as it is more than questionable that more than a handful of women will bowl the tournament in Qatar.

Previous leader Kirsten Penny (left), England, fell to second place and is 51 points behind Flack with 593. Dutch Nicole Sanders (right, 568) and Ghislaine van der Tol (408) remained in third and fourth place in the women's rankings.

Patricia Luoto, Germany, moved into fifth place with 379. points. Luoto and Flack were the most successful women on the EBT Tour recently. Luoto, who won the Columbia 300 Vienna Open last month, was targeting her third consecutive win in the women's rankings but finished second to Flack and fifth overall.

Marilyn Planchard, France, moved into sixth place with 357, while 3-time ranking champion Britt Brøndsted, Denmark, and World Youth championships gold medalist Tina Hulsch, Germany, are rounding out the top 8, tied at 342 points.

Defending men's champion Osku Palermaa cleft) continued to lead the rankings with 654 points, 64 points ahead of Torgersen (590). Dominic Barrett (right), England, fell one spot to third with 569.

Swedes Martin Larsen (525), Peter Ljung (451) and Robert Andersson (337) sit in fourth, fifth and sixth place. 3-time ranking champion Paul Moor, England, is seventh with 325, while Finn Pasi Uotila (321) is the "man on the bubble".

The top eight men and the top eight women at the end of the ranking season will qualify for the 2009 World Ranking Masters in Naples, Italy. In addition, the top 16 men and the top 16 women will qualify for the EBT Masters in May 2008 in Aalborg, Denmark.

The remaining two events overlap. The 17th stop, the Ebonite English Open, will be held at Lakeside Superbowl Nuneaton in Nuneaton, England, from Dec. 3-7, 2008 and the 18th and season-ending event, the 8th Qatar International Open 2008 will be contested at Qatar Bowling Center in Doha, Qatar, from Dec. 4-13, 2008.


2008 Men's Ranking - Top 8 after Naples
1. Osku Palermaa, Finland, 654
2. Tore Torgersen, Norway, 590
3. Dominic Barrett, England, 569
4. Martin Larsen, Sweden, 525
5. Peter Ljung, Sweden, 451
6. Robert Andersson, Sweden, 337
7. Paul Moor, England, 325
8. Pasi Uotila, Finland, 321

2008 Women's Ranking - Top 8 after Naples
1. Nina Flack, Sweden, 644
2. Kirsten Penny, England, 593
3. Nicole Sanders, Netherlands, 568
4. Ghislaine van der Tol, Netherlands, 408
5. Patricia Luoto, Finland, 379
6. Marilyn Planchard, France, 357
7. Britt Brøndsted, Denmark, 342
(tie) Tina Hulsch, Germany, 342

EBT Men's Rankings after 15 events
EBT Women's Rankings after 15 events