Helminen continues winning streak for Finnish bowlers in Greece

Jouni Helminen (left), a former Finnish international and currently the President of the Finnish Bowling Federation, became the third consecutive Finnish bowler after Osku Palermaa, who continues to lead with 1430, and Reija Lunden to win a qualifying squad in the Brunswick Euro Challenge at Strike Bowling Club in Thessaloniki, Greece.

Helminen had a high game of 254 and a low game of 202 to chalk up a 1385 six-game total, and an average of 230.83, en route to move into 10th place in the overall qualifying standings.

His team mate, four-time European champion Petteri Salonen (right) finished the 21st out of 27 squads in second place with 1350, a 225 average, to move into 18th place. Salonen who had five 230-plus games but one 171 missed the top 16, who will earn one bye for the finals, by five pins.

The third and last player from this squad who moved into the top 52 qualifying leaders was David Canady. The German started with back-to-back 240-plus games but due to two sub-200 games in the fifth and sixth, Canady had to settle for 1290 and 43rd place.

The squad featured a strong contingent of Austrian players. Austrian head coach Helmut Amstätter (left) has brought the complete men's national team to Thessaloniki in preparation for the Men's European Championships in Vienna, Austria in June/July.

However, the seven men got beaten by the sole woman, Ivonne Gross (right), who was the fourth-best of 48 players with 1259 including her 48 pins handicap.

Nikolai Schroeder, pictured left with Ivonne's husband Thomas (r.), was two pins behind at 1257. Ivonne Gross and Schroeder sit in 57th and 60th place, eleven and thirteen pins out of the cut to the top 52 players. Jaana Puhakka, Finland, is the woman "on the bubble" with 1270.

Thus far, 297 players from 31 countries have completed at least one qualifying block. Qualifying ends on Saturday with the 27th and final qualifying squad scheduled for 8pm followed by the Desperado Squad, the ultimate one-game chance to qualify for the finals on Sunday, March 18.

Bowlingdigital covers the event live from Thessaloniki all the way through to the TV finals on Sunday.

The BEC is the fifth stop of the 2007 European Bowling Tour and one of the Tour's "Majors". Since the cancellation of the Viernheim Open, the Brunswick Euro Challenge is the richest event on the 2007 European Bowling Tour.

The total prize fund for the Open Division, Women and B-Bowlers plus special prizes is 90.000 Euro (approx. US$116,600). The Open Division champion will pocket 16.000 €.

A total of 64 players will qualify for the finals on Sunday, March 18:

• Top 52 from the qualifying
• Top 6 from the qualifying squads conducted March 9-11 not among those 52
• Top 6 from the Desperado Squad.

The top 16 qualifying leaders will bypass the first round. The other 48 finalists roll six games starting from scratch. The top 16 will join the 16 qualifying leaders in the best-of-three games single elimination finals. The highest ranked player will bowl the lowest seed, etc.

The rounds of 32, 16 and 8 trim the field from 16, to eight, then to four. The remaining four players will be seeded 1 to 4 for the stepladder finals to determine the champion in three one-game matches: No. 4 vs. No. 3, winner vs. No. 2, winner vs. No. 1.