Ville Holmström wins qualifying in Ebonite Lahti Open

    10/16/11

    2011 European Bowling Tour #18

    Samuli Tiainen hits cutoff number for 36th place with 1296 (216 ave.)

    2011EBT18VilleHolmstrom.jpg2011EBT18MartinLarsen.jpgVille Holmström (pictured left) of Finland won the qualifying of the Ebonite Lahti Open en route to lead total 40 players - 35 men and five women - into Sunday's finals at Lahti Bowl in Lahti, Finland.

    Holmström fired games of 258, 242, 266, 279, 213 and 220 in Squad 12 on Saturday morning to lead the 219 player field from ten countries with 1478 six-game total and an average of 246.33.

    Martin Larsen (right), Sweden, was a distant second with 1426 with Dane Thomas Larsen, in third with 1408. Teemu Asplund, Finland, landed in fourth place with his 1387 series from the first qualifying day.

    Danes Jimmy Mortensen and Jesper Agerbo were fifth and sixth with 1370 and 1359, respectively. Seventh place belonged to Pasi Uotila, Finland, who toppled 1352 pins.

    2011EBT18PeterLjung.jpg2011EBT18JoonasJehkinen.jpgSwede Mattias Olsson led the 15th and last qualifying squad with 1336 to kick Mik Stampe, Denmark (1335) out of the top 8, who will bypass the first round of the finals. Stampe had the sole 300 game of the tournament thus far.

    The two other squad leader from Saturday, Peter Ljung (left), Sweden (Squad 14; 1323) and Joonas Jehkinen (right), Finland (Squad 13; 1308), made the cut in 14th and 27th place, respectively.

    Patricia Luoto (below left), Germany, was the best of 33 women in the field in 11th place with 1327 and one of just four women above the cut line.

    2011EBT18PatriciaLuoto.jpg2011EBT18RoosaLunden.jpgRoosa Lundén (right), Finland, was mere two pins behind in 12th place with 1325. ECC and World Games champion Krista Pöllänen, Finland, was 27th with 1318 and current European Bowling Tour women's ranking leader Joline Persson-Planefors, Sweden, was 34th with 1299.

    Samuli Tiainen, Finland, took the 36th and last place to advance with 1296 or an average of 216.

    Joining the top 36 in the finals were the top 4 from the single-game Desperado Squad. Three players J-P Laiho, Finland; Konstantin Matvienko, Russia; and Patrick Bohm, Sweden tied for the lead with 225.

    Danish national team member Sascha Wedel grabbed the fourth and last spot with 223 including 8 pins handicap to become the fifth woman in the finals.

    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) ran 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 - advanced to the finals on Sunday, Oct. 16. The top 8 qualifiers earned one bye and were 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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    Standings after Qualifying and Desperado Squad


    The top 36 qualifiers plus the top 4 from the Desperado Squad (places 37-40) advance to the finals.

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