Danes lead all qualifying squads on Friday in Ebonite Lahti Open

    10/15/11

    2011 European Bowling Tour #18

    Five Danes move into the top 10; Martin Larsen continues to lead; Mik Stampe shoots first 300 game; Patricia Luoto becomes leading woman; cut for 36th place is 1283 (213.83)

    2011EBT18ThomasLarsen.jpg2011EBT18MartinLarsen.jpg

    Danish national team members set the tone in the qualifying of the Ebonite Lahti Open on Friday leading all three squads with five players moving into the top 10 of the 207-player leader board.

    Thomas Larsen (pictured left), currently the No. 2 in the European Bowling Tour men's ranking, had a high game of 259 and three 240s in Squad 11 to jump into second place in the overall standings with 1408 total and an average of 234.67.

    Larsen became the second player who surpassed the 1400 mark trailing qualifying leader Martin Larsen (right; 1426), Sweden, by 18 pins. Teemu Asplund, Finland, who had 1387 on the first day of the tournament, slipped to third place.

    2011EBT18JimmyMortensen.jpg2011EBT18JesperAgerbo.jpgJimmy Mortensen (left) and Jesper Agerbo (right) moved into fourth and fifth place with 1370 and 1359, respectively. Mortensen, who led Squad 10, had four games between 201 and 223 and high games of 279 and 247. Agerbo started his set with a 289.

    Pasi Uotila, Finland, slipped from third to sixth place with 1352 and was followed by Mik Stampe (below left) with 1335. The Dane had a slow start averaging under 200 for his first four games before he closed out his series with the sole 300 game of the tournament thus far and 256.

    Oleksandr Kondratyev, Ukraine, fell from fourth to eighth place, also with 1335 but the lower last game (181). The top 8 qualifiers will bypass the first round of the finals.

    2011EBT18PatriciaLuoto.jpg2011EBT10MikStampe.jpgGerman national team member Patricia Luoto (right) missed the top 8 by eight pins finishing Squad 9 with 1327 including 48 pins handicap to leap into ninth place. Luoto is the best of 30 women in the field and one of just three women above the cut line. Others are Marjo Pöntinen, Finland, in 28th place with 1291 and Heidi Thorstensen, Norway, who is 32nd with 1289.

    Within the three squads on Friday the cut went up from 1233 to 1283 set by Sami Lampo, Finland, who is the man "on the bubble" in 36th place.

    Qualifying continues on Saturday, Oct. 15, with Squads 12-15 scheduled to start at 8 a.m., noon, 4 and 8 p.m. local time (CET+1) and concludes with the single-game Desperado Squad slated for 11.30 p.m.

    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. 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 11/15

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