Juho Mäkelä cracks top 8 in Qualifying Squad 5 at Ebonite Lahti Open

    10/11/11

    2011 European Bowling Tour #18

    Teemu Asplund continues to lead; cut for 36th place is 1203 (200.50)

    2011EBT18JuhoMakela.jpg2011EBT18TeemuAsplund.jpgJuho Mäkelä (pictured left), Finland, was the sole player of the fifth qualifying squad in the Ebonite Lahti Open, who surpassed the 1300-mark, Monday evening at Lahti Bowl in Lahti, Finland. Mäkelä had games of 230, 213, 198, 228, 208 and 225 for 1302 six-game total, an average of 217.00, to leap into sixth place in the overall qualifying standings.

    Squad 2 leader Teemu Asplund (right) continued to lead the field of 120 players from Finland, Russia and Ukraine with 1387 pinfall total and an average of 231.17. Pasi Uotila (below left) remained in second place with 1352.

    Oleksandr Kondratyev, Ukraine, is the sole non-Finnish bowler among the top 36 in third place with 1335.

    2011EBT18PasiUotila.jpg2009BWCReijaLunden2.jpgMikko Pietilä was next to Mäkelä with 1278 including a high game of 249 and a low game of 134, good for tenth place overall. Jari Aaltonen was five pins behind with 1273 to move into 11th place.

    Long-time Finnish women's national team member Reija Lunden (right) finisher her series with a huge 257 game and 1271 including handicap to leap into 12th place. Lunden is the best of 17 women and one of just three above the cut line.

    Joni Nieminen currently holds the 36th and last spot to advance with 1203 and an average of 200.50.

    Qualifying continues on Thursday, Oct. 13, with Squads 6, 7 and 8 scheduled to start at 11 a.m., 3 and 7 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.

    2010EBT16MichaelFagan_small.jpg2010EBT05MaiGingeJensen_small.jpg In the 2010 Lahti Open, two-time PBA championMichael Fagan (left), United States, came from fourth to first place averaging almost 250 in the stepladder finals to win his third EBT title. In the title match, Fagan defeated top seeded Mai Ginge Jensen, Denmark, 247-207, to claim the title and the 10.000 Euro top prize. Jensen, who won the women's ranking, finished second for 5.000 Euro.

    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.

    The Ebonite Lahti Open features a 41 feet Kegel lane conditioning pattern with 21.45ml volume oil total.

    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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    Qualifying Standings after Squad 5/15

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