Asplund, Valaranta lead Ebonite Lahti Open after the first day of qualifying

    10/09/11

    2011 European Bowling Tour #18

    Lahti Bowl in Lahti, Finland (Oct. 8-16, 2011)

    2011EBT18SamuValaranta.jpg2011EBT18TeemuAsplund.jpgTotal 63 players kicked off the 2011 Ebonite Lahti Open Saturday at Lahti Bowl in Lahti, Finland. 60 Finns, two Russians and one Ukrainian entered the first two of total fifteen qualifying squads in the European Bowling Tour "Silver" tournament.

    Teemu Asplund and Samu Valaranta, both of Finland, took the early lead 1387 and 1313, respectively. Valaranta (pictured left) led the opening squad behind games of 245, 205, 240, 196, 202 and 225 (218.93 average) but Asplund (right) easily took over a 73-pin lead (231.17 ave.) with games of 242, 185, 233, 227, 247 and 253.

    Perttu Jussila, Finland, was the only other player who surpassed the 1300-mark with 1310. Jonna Jokinen was the best of ten women on the first day of qualifying with 1195 including handicap, good for 15th place.

    Qualifying continues on Sunday, Oct. 9, with Squads 3 and 4 scheduled to start at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. local time (CET+1).

    2008LahtiOpenLogo.jpg The Ebonite Lahti Open is the 18th stop of the 2011 European Bowling Tour and the last "Silver" event of the 2011 EBT season. The tournament will be held from Saturday Oct. 8 through Sunday Oct. 16, 2011 at 20-lane Lahti Bowl in Lahti, Finland.

    Lahti is the capital of the Päijänne Tavastia region. It is situated on a bay at the southern end of lake Vesijärvi about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north-east of the capital Helsinki.

    The tournament offers total prize fund of 52.200 Euro with 10.000 Euro going to the winner and 5.000 Euro to the runner-up as well as 3.000 and 2.000 Euro to the third and fourth place finisher.

    Since the English Open has lost its EBT status, the 2011 European Bowling Tour consists of 20 tour stops in 16 countries including two Platinum, six Gold, six Silver and six Satellite tournaments.

    The top 50 men and the top 50 women in each event receive ranking points. The winner of a Platinum tournament receives 250 ranking points, the winner of a Gold tournament gets 150, the winner of a Silver tournament such as the Lahti Open earns 100, and the winner of a Satellite tournament gets 50 ranking points.

    The top 16 men and the top 16 women at the end of the 2011 season qualify for the fifth EBT Masters to be held at Dream-Bowl Palace in Unterföhring near Munich, Germany on April 30 and May 1, 2012. The event will become the first EBT Masters to be contested on single lane condition.

    Qualifying of the 2011 Ebonite Lahti Open (six-game series, unlimited re-entries) runs from Saturday, Oct. 8 through Saturday, Oct. 15 with the final Squad 15 scheduled for 8 p.m. local time (CET +1). Qualifying concludes with the single-game Desperado Squad slated for 11.30 p.m.

    Women will receive 8 pins handicap each game throughout the entire event, a standard for women on the European Bowling Tour.

    A total of 40 players - the top 36 from the qualifying and top 4 from the Desperado Squad - will advance to the finals on Sunday, Oct. 16. The top 8 qualifiers earn one bye and will be seeded into Final Round 2.

    The remaining 32 players bowl 6 games starting from scratch. The top 12 join the top 8 qualifiers and bowl 5 games from scratch with the top 10 advancing to Round Three. Those 10 players bowl another five-game series with the pinfall from Round Two being carried forward to cut to the top 4 who advance to the stepladder finals.

    The No. 4 seed meets the No. 3 seed, the winner takes on the No. 2 for the right to bowl the No. 1 for the title. All stepladder matches are single-game matches.

     


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