Finland's Petra Korkiamäki (pictured left) finished the 8th squad with a huge 252 game which gave her the lead in the qualifying of the 7th Columbia 300 Vienna Open Thursday evening at Plus Bowling in Vienna, Austria.

Korkiamäki had a scratch total of 1281 and added 48 pins handicap to tie Mik Stampe, Denmark at 1329 pinfall total and to move to the top due to the higher last game.

Defending VO doubles champion Robert Andersson (right) finished his first qualifying series with 235 and 244 to help grab third place in the overall qualifying standings with 1318.

Leo Grundschober, Austria, slipped to fourth place with 1310 while Andreas Humm, Germany, is fifth with 1299. Austrian national team member Roman Fürbacher sandwiched four games between 248 and 222 between two sub-par games to land in sixth place with 1294.

Anton Stiel, Austria, is 7th with 1288 and Tim Friedrichs, Germany, is 8th with 1286.

With 215 players in the books, Karel Kutina, Czech Republic, holds the 52nd and final place to advance with 1198 or an average of 199,67.

The first two doubles in Squad 8 cracked the 2500 bar in this year's event. Mike Quarry (pictured left) and Rob Thurlby (right), England, teamed to overtake the lead with 2545 pinfall total and an average of 212,08. Thurlby led the team with 1279 and Quarry had 1266.

Andersson and team mate Mathias Ã…rup (left, 1194) were second with 2512 (209.33). Previous leaders Anders Lousdal and Mik Stampe, Denmark, fell to third with 2493 (207.75).

Qualifying continues on Thursday with Squad 9 at 8pm.

The 7th Columbia 300 Vienna Open is the 11th stop of the 2009 European Bowling Tour and one of the Tour's "Majors". The tournament will be held from Tuesday Sept. 29 through Sunday Oct. 4, 2009 at the renovated 32-lane Plus Bowling in Vienna, Austria.

More than 340 players from 27 countries will compete for an increased total prize money of 68.130 Euro - 57.900 € in Singles and 10.230 € in Doubles. The singles champion will receive the 6.000 Euro top prize while the doubles winners will split 1.600.

Once again the qualifying for the Vienna Open finals is contested as a doubles tournament. Each duo rolls at least one six-game block. Unlimited re-entries with different partners are possible but each player can only cash once with the same partner.

The team with the highest total pinfall including handicap will be declared the winner (no finals will be played). The top 20 doubles will cash. Bigi Manico, Switzerland and Tanya Cuva (nee Petty) are the defending champion.

Qualifying runs from Tuesday through Saturday and ends with the ultimate one-game Desperado Squad on Saturday night Oct. 3 slated for 11.30 pm local time (GMT +1). Women receive 8 pins handicap each game, a standard on the European Bowling Tour

A total of 64 players will qualify for the Vienna Open finals on Sunday, Oct. 4:

the top 52 players from the overall qualifying standings

the first player each from Squad 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, who is not among the top 52 (total 6 players)

and the top 6 from the Desperado Squad.

The top 8 qualifying leaders will bypass the first round of the finals.

The other 52 players will bowl 6 games starting from scratch to cut to the top 22, who will join the top qualifiers in Round Two.

Those 30 players will bowl another 6 games starting from scratch after which the field will be trimmed to the top 18, who will carry their pinfall forward into Round Three. After another 6-game block the top 4 with the highest 12-game total will advance to the stepladder finals.

The No. 4 seed meets the No. 3 in the opening match and the winner takes on the No. 2 seed for the right to bowl the top seed for the title, 100 ranking points and the 6.000 Euro top prize.

 

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Download the pdf files here

2009 Vienna Open Singles - Qualifying Standings after Squad 8 of 17
2009 Vienna Open Doubles - Standings after Squad 8 of 17
2009 Vienna Open Singles - Squad 8 Results
2009 Vienna Open Doubles - Squad 8 Results

 

2009 Vienna Open Singles - Qualifying Standings after Squad 8 of 17

 

2009 Vienna Open Doubles - Standings after Squad 8 of 17

 

2009 Vienna Open Singles - Squad 8 Results

 

2009 Vienna Open Doubles - Squad 8 Results