Osku Palermaa powers his way into the lead in Bratislava

    09/08/12

    2012 European Bowling Tour #13

    Finnish two-hander becomes first play to crack the 1400-mark: another four players move into top 10 on Friday; Birgit Pöppler is best woman in 8th place; cut for 48th place is 1206 (201 average)

    2012EBT13OskuPalermaa.jpg2012EBT13MartinLarsen.jpgThree-time PBA champion Osku Palermaa (pictured left) of Finland became the first player in the 2012 BNC Open who cracked the 1400-bar to lead the field of 201 players from 21 countries heading into the last qualifying day at BNC Bowling Center in Bratislava, Slovakia.

    The four-time European Bowling Tour point ranking winner (2007-09, 2011) rolled games of 224, 246, 242, 247, 227 and 219 in the penultimate squad on Friday for 1405 total and an average of 234.17 over six games.

    2012EBT11RobertAndersson.jpg2012EBT13GiannyHendrickx.jpgPrevious leader Martin Larsen (above right) of Sweden slipped to second place with 1379 and was followed by compatriot Robert Andersson (left), who was second to Palermaa in Squad 19 with 1373.

    Following the 2006 Men's World Championships Doubles gold medalist was Russia's Alexander Medveditskov, who fell from second to fourth place with 1352. Gianny Hendrickx (right) of Belgium outaveraged his nearest competitor in Squad 20 by 31 pins to jump into fifth place overall with 1349.

    2012EBT13LinasSasnauskas.jpg2012EBT13BirgitPoppler.jpgAustria's Thomas Gross slipped to sixth place with 1339, five pins ahead of Squad 18 leader Linas Sasnauskas (left) of Lithuania, who toppled 1334 pins. Birgit Pöppler (right) of Germany, runner-up in the Women's European Championships Masters in June, was close behind Sasnauskas with 1326 including handicap to become the best of 29 women in the field in eighth place.

    Rounding out the top 10 were Rene Landl of Austria (1322) and Mattias Nilsson of Sweden (1312). Božo Nagode of Slovenia was the last player, who surpassed the 1300 mark, with in 11th place with 1303.

    2012EBT13Jarosla Lorenc.jpg2012EBT13SamiLampo.jpgSquad 17 leader Sami Lampo (left) of Finland moved into 12th place with 1296. Kamil Bajcsi was the lone Slovakian player above the cut line in 41st place with 1221.

    The cutoff number for 48th place surpassed the 1200-mark (even par based on a 200 average) on Friday. Jaroslav Lorenc (right), Czech Republic, is the man "on the bubble" with 1206 or an average of 201.

    Qualifying continues on Saturday, Sept. 7 with Squads 21-24 scheduled for 9 a.m., 1, 5 and 9 p.m. CEST and concludes with the Desperado Squad slated for 12.30 a.m. on Sunday.

    2012BNCOpenLogo_small.jpg The BNC Open is the sixth of seven EBT "Silver" tournaments this season and runs from Sept. 3-9 at 16-lane BNC Bowling Center. The BNC Open offers total prize fund of 42.000 Euro with 6.000 Euro going to the winner, 3.300 to the runner-up and 1.800 Euro a piece for the third and fourth place finishers.

    The BNC Open will be played on the 39 feet Winding Road pattern from the Kegel Navigation Patterns Sport Series. Click here for the Kegel Lane Map Guide.

    Qualifying (6 games, unlimited re-entries) runs through Saturday, Sept. 8 with the final qualifying Squad 24 scheduled for 9 p.m. CEST. Women receive 8 pins handicap each game, a standard on the European Bowling Tour.

    A total of 64 players will advance to the finals on Sunday, Sept. 9: The top 48 players from the overall qualifying standings, plus the top 4 each from a separate leaderboard of the Squads on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, who are not among the top 48. The last four spots go to the top 4 of the single-game Desperado Squad.

    The top 16 qualifiers earn two byes, while players seeded 17-32 bypass the first round of the finals. The remaining 32 players will bowl 3 games starting from scratch with the top 16 advancing to the second round.

    The second and third round will be played in the same format. The remaining 16 players, who advance to the fourth round, will carry forward the pinfall total from Round 3 and bowl another three-game block to cut to the top 8 for the single-elimination match play finals.

    Match play consists of two games, with the total pinfall to determine the winner. In all rounds the highest seeded player will meet the lowest seeded player, the second highest will meet the second lowest etc.

    The field will be trimmed to four then two players who will bowl for the title and the 6.000 Euro top prize.

    2012EBTLogo_small.jpg The 2012 European Bowling Tour is made up of 20 events in 16 countries including two Platinum, four Gold, seven Silver and seven Satellite tournaments.

    The top 50 men and the top 50 women in each event earn ranking points based on how they finish in the event. 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 BNC Open earns 100, and the winner of a Satellite tournament gets 50 ranking points.

    Those points will be tabulated throughout the season to determine the top 16 men and top 16 women who will compete in the sixth EBT Masters, which will be held Sept. 30, 2013 at BNC Bowling Center in Bratislava immediately following the 2013 BNC Open (Sept. 23-29).

     


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