Franz Hahn cracks 1400-bar to overtake the lead in BNC Bratislava Open

08/26/10

2010 European Bowling Tour #13

Qualifying in Bratislava reaches halfway point

2010EBT13FranzHahn.jpg2010EBT13JiriHindrak.jpgFranz Hahn (pictured left) of Austria fired games of 235, 231, 214, 258, 255 and 211 to become the first player who cracked the 1400-bar as the qualifying of the BNC Bratislava Open has reached the halfway mark. With 12 out of 24 squads in the books, Hahn leads the field of 169 players - 147 men and 22 women - from 14 countries with 1404 six-game total and an average of 234.00.

For the third and last day in the qualifying the top 4 daily leaders earned automatic berths into the finals on Sunday, Aug. 29th at BNC Bowling Center in Bratislava, Slovakia. Joining Hahn in the finals are Jiří Hindrák (right) of the Czech Republic, Slovenia's Darko Tiselj, and Artur Levikin, Lithuania.

2010EBT13DarkoTiselj.jpg2010EBT13ArturLevikin2.jpgTiselj (left) led Squad 9 on Wednesday morning with 1301 pinfall total, good for 6th place in the overall standings at the end of the day. Levikin was second to Hahn in Squad 10 to move into 8th place with 1291.

Hindrák used a 279 game in Squad 11 for 1367 to jump into third place sandwiched between previous leader Thomas Gross (1375), Austria, and his wife Ivonne Gross (below left), who is the top-ranked woman in the field in fourth place with 1333 including 48 pins handicap. Rounding out the top 5 is day one leader Róbert Záhora, Slovakia, with 1304.

2010EBT13BrianVoss.jpg2010EBT13IvonneGross.jpg25-time PBA champion and PBA Hall of Famer Brian Voss l(right) ed the evening Squad 12 with 1278, a 213.00 average, but missed the top 4 on the daily leaderboard by 13 pins. Voss sits currently in 13th place.

Radek Pospíšil, Slovakia, is the "man on the bubble" in 48th place with 1189 or an average of 198.17.

Qualifying continues through Saturday and will end with the one-game Desperado Squad scheduled for 0.30 a.m. CET on Sunday morning.

2010BratislavaOpenLogo.jpg The BNC Bratislava Open is a newcomer on the European Bowling Tour and will be held from Aug. 23-29, 2010 at BNC Bowling Center, a 16-laner in Bratislava, Slovakia. The tournament offers total prize fund of 40.000 Euro with 5.000 Euro going to the winner. Women receive 8 pins handicap each game, a standard for women on the European Bowling Tour

The tournament is the 13th stop of the 2010 European Bowling Tour and one of the Tour's "Silver" tournaments. 100 ranking points are on the line for the winner of the men's and women's rankings in Bratislava, respectively.

Since the Ankara Open and the Austria Challenge have been cancelled, the 2010 EBT Tour consists of 19 events - 2 EBT Platinum tournament (formerly Premier), 6 EBT Gold tournaments (formerly Major), 7 EBT Silver tournaments (formerly Challenger) and 4 EBT Satellite tournaments (new category).

Qualifying continues until Saturday, Aug. 28th. A total of 64 players will advance to the finals on Sunday: The top 48 players from the overall qualifying standings, plus the top 4 from a separate leaderboard of the Squads on Wednesday, Tuesday and Monday, who are not among the top 48. The last four spots are reserved for the top 4 of the Desperado Squad.

The top 16 qualifiers earn two byes, while players seeded 17-32 bypass the first round of the finals.

The remaining 32 players will bowl 3 games starting from scratch with the top 16 advancing to the second round. The second and third round will be played in the same format. The 16 players, who advance to the fourth round will carry forward the pinfall total from Round 3 and bowl another 3-game block to cut to the top 8 for single-elimination match play.

Match play consists of two games, with the total pinfall to determine the winner. The field will be trimmed to 4 then two players who will bowl for the title and the 5.000 Euro top prize.

 


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Qualifying Standings after Squad 12/24