Two-hander Palermaa takes first round lead in men's World Ranking Masters

04/29/09

Italy

Oltremare Bowling Arena in Naples, Italy (April 27 - May 3, 2009)

2009EBT05OskuPalermaa.jpgEuropean Ranking Masters champion Osku Palermaa (right) led the field of 24 men from 17 countries after the first of three 8-game blocks on the short oil pattern (34 feet) in the 9th World Ranking Masters.

Click on the image to enlarge it.

The two-hander from Finland, who has won the European Bowling Tour rankings in the past two years, used high games of 246 and 245 and five games between 231 and 237 to overtake the first round lead with 1861 pinfall total or an average of 232.62. Palermaa received a 1.000 U.S. Dollar bonus.

2009EBT03DominicBarrett.jpg2009EBT04LucasLegnani.jpgBasel Al-Anzi, Kuwait, beat out Dominic Barrett (right), England, for the second place by one pin, 1826 to 1825. Al-Anzi had eight games between 206 and 247 while Barrett, who won the Australian Open and the World Tenpin Masters earlier this month, had a high game of 258 and low game of 198.

Lucas Legnani (left) is the top-tanked bowler from America in fourth place with 1803. The Argentinean, who won his first title on the European Bowling Tour in Catalonia on March 1st, averaged 243.60 over the last five games after a sub-par start into the tournament.

2008CTBCMarkBuffa.jpg 2009WRMZulmazranZulkifli.jpgLast year's runner-up Zulmazran Zulkifli (left), Malaysia, is fifth with 1792, with Mark Buffa (right), Canada, in sixth (1772) and Asian Ranking champion Hussain Al-Suwaidi in seventh (1767). Rounding out the top 8 is Robert Andersson, Sweden, with 1736 or an average of 217.00.

Places 9-12 belong to European bowlers, all less than 15 pins off the pace for 8th place.

All 24 players bowl 24 games of qualifying over three days, eight each on short, medium (40) and short (left lane) and medium (right lane) oil pattern. The top 8 after 24 games will advance to the single-elimination best-of-three games finals.

The men's division offers USD32,500 total prize money with $10,000 going to the winner.

 


Men's Division - Standings after the first block on short oil

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