Dominican Republic's Aumi Guerra leads opening day at 12th Qatar Bowling Open

    12/11/12

    2012 European Bowling Tour #19

    Guerra and second place Hussain Al-Suwaidi are automatically qualified for the finals on Saturday, Dec. 15; EBT "Platinum" tournament is also the second stop of the 2013 World Bowling Tour and will award a PBA international title if won by a PBA member

    2012EBT19AumiGuerra.jpgThe 12th Qatar Bowling Open, a European Bowling Tour and World Bowling Tour event, is underway. 60 players from 14 countries, 58 men and two women, helped usher in the 125.000 Euro "Platinum" event at the Qatar Bowling Center in Doha on Sunday.

    2012EBT19AumiGuerra2.jpgTwo-time World Cup champion Aumi Guerra (left) of the Dominican Republic and Hussain Al-Suwaidi, UAE, set the pace in the first two of 17 qualifying squads and earned automatic berths in the finals on Saturday, Dec. 15.

    Guerra, who finished second in this year's World Cup earlier this month, used a 278 high game and five games between 189 and 216 in Squad 1 for 1308 pinfall, an average of 218.00, and added 48 pins women's handicap to take the early lead with 1356 total. Guerra received a 200 Euro bonus for the "Daily High Series" (above right).

    2012EBT19IsaacRussell.jpgAl-Suwaidi, a former Asian Bowling Federation point ranking leader, had the field-best 1319 scratch (219.83 average) including high games of 254 and 266 to help grab second place.

    2012EBT04AlexLiew.jpgIsaac Russell (left) of Malaysia started the second squad with a 279 but fell three pins short off the top 2 to sit in third place with 1316. Fourth place belonged to the best Qatari bowler, Mohammed Jamal, who toppled 1284 pins.

    Michael Ankerdal of Denmark tied Jamal at 1284 but was seeded fifth due to lower last game, 247 to 227 in Jamal's favor.

    Rounding out the top 9 were Alex Liew (right) 2010EBT05MohammedAlSaud.jpgof Malaysia (6th; 1273), Abdulla Haroon of Qatar (7th; 1265), Mohammed Al-Saud (left) of Saudi Arabia (8th; 1248) and Mansoor Al-Awamy of Qatar (9th; 1230). The top 9 at the end of the qualifying will earn one bye for the finals.

    The second woman in the field so far, Pia Burkal of Denmark, totaled 1192 including handicap, good for 14th place overall. Bassam Najjar of Lebanon currently holds the 36th and last place to advance with 1066 or an average of 177.67.

    Qualifying continues Monday, Dec. 10 with Squads 3-5 scheduled for noon, 4 and 8 p.m. Arabia Standard Time. The top three players of a separate leader board of those three squads will automatically qualify for the finals.

    2012EBT19QatarOpenLogo.jpg The 12th Qatar Bowling Open is the 19th and last event of the 2012 European Bowling Tour and one of only two EBT "Platinum" tournaments this season. The tournament will be held from Dec. 9-15, 2012 at 32-lane Qatar Bowling Center in Doha, Qatar.

    Players will compete for total prize fund of 125.000 Euro (approx. $163,000) with 30.000 € going to the winner, 14.400 € to the runner-up and 5.000 € apiece to the third and fourth place finishers.

    As the 12th Qatar Bowling Open is also the second event of the 2013 World Bowling Tour, the tournament will also award a PBA international title if won by a PBA member or a PBA international member.

    Qualifying (6 games, unlimited re-entries) runs from Sunday, Dec. 9 through Friday, Dec. 14 with the final Squad 17 scheduled to start at 8 p.m. Arabia Standard Time (6 p.m. CET; noon EST). Qualifying will conclude with the one-game Desperado Squad slated for 11 p.m. Women receive 8 pins handicap each game, a standard on the European Bowling Tour.

    A total of 48 players - the top 36 in the overall qualifying standings, the top 2 of the Dec. 9 squads, the top 3 each of the Dec. 10 and 11 squads, plus the top 4 from the Desperado Squad - advance to the finals on Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012.

    The top 9 qualifiers earn one bye. The remaining 39 players will bowl six games scratch with the top 19 advancing to the second round. Those 19 and the nine qualifying leaders will roll another six-game block scratch to cut to the top 4, who advance to the semifinals.

    The No. 1 bowls No. 4 and the No. 2 bowls No. 3 with the two-game total pinfall determining the winner. The two semifinal winners will bowl for the title and the 30.000 Euro top prize.

    2012EBTLogo_small.jpg The 2012 European Bowling Tour is made up of 19 events in 16 countries including two Platinum, four Gold, six 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 such as the Qatar Bowling Open receives 250 ranking points, the winner of a Gold tournament gets 150, the winner of a Silver tournament 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 in Bratislava, Slovakia in Sept. 2013.

     


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