Israel and Norway move into second and third in Boys Doubles

Ori Sonnenschein and Dor Speizman (l-r) from Israel led the second of four squads in the Boys Double event at the 20th European Youth Championships to move into second place overall with 2524 six-game total.

Finland's Perttu Jussila and Tony Ranta (right), who rolled a 2548 series this morning, remained in the gold medal position.

The Israelis had a slow start with 344, then rolled five consecutive games over 400 (a 200 average) with 402, 474, 465, 406 and 433.

Both players ended the last game with a series of strikes, which was vital to weather a strong charge by Norwegians Alexander Kvinnesland and Ole Jorgen Arntsen (l-r).

The newcomers on the Norwegian youth national team had five over (2005) after five games, but showed an impressive finish.

Kvinnesland (right) started with the front seven, before a 10-pin denied his bid for a perfect game. He spared and finished with three strikes and a nine-count for 278, the highest game of the championship thus far. Arntsen added 216 for 2499 pinfall total, good for third place overall.

3-time defending champion Marcus Berndt Doubles, Trios, Team), left, and his partner Kim Bolleby led the squad after three games with 1276 but final games of 364, 348 and 364 sent the duo back to 10th place overall with 2352 and an average of 196.00. Both Swedes have a massive bowling background in their family. Kim father Ulf is a two-time World Champion (1987) and Marcus' mother and father are multiple world and European champions.

Hungarians David Kodmon and Gyorgy Bodis led the squad after five games but a final 384 game ended their dreams of a medal. The duo currently sits in sixth place with 2469 (205.75).

Russians Ramil Zinatullin and Alexey Vasilenko ended their six-game series with games of 453 and 466 to jump into fourth place with 2481 and an average of 206.75. Michael Michas and George Venetis from the host country of Greece combined for a 2441 (203.42) series to move into seventh place.

Israel's Nati Volfart and Oron Cohen (left, 2474) and Ashley Iacona and Andrew Jones, England (right, 2393), who were in second and third after squad four fell to 5th and 9th place, resp.

There are two more squads in the Boys Doubles competition today, starting at 4 and 8 p.m. local time (GM +2 hours). All duos roll six with the gold, silver and bronze medalists to be determined around 11 p.m. The medal presentation is scheduled for Tuesday at 1.30 p.m.

Surprisingly, Vladislavs Filimonovs is the new leader in the Boys All Events. The Latvian was one of two pacers in the field (Raimundas Pocius from Lithuania was the other), because Latvia hasn't sent a complete team.

Without the pressure of competing in the Doubles event, Filimonovs averaged 225.18 over six games and felled 1351 pins to rise to the top. The question is if it is fair to the other players that some players bowl individually while most of the others compete in a two, three or five player team event.


Boys Doubles Results

Boys All Events