Mads Sandbækken (pictured left) of Norway and Jenny Wegner of Swedenaveraged over 230 in Round Three en route to earn the No. 1 seed for the men's and women's single-elimination finals in the 37th European Champions Cup Friday at Keiluhollin, Egilsholl bowling center in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Sandbækken, who fell to eventual winner Kimmo Lehtonen, Finland, in the ECC semifinals last year, rebounded from a slow start (197) with games of 248, 227, 257, 229, 231, 236 and 239 for 1864 and 5283 total, an overall average of 220.13 for 24 games.

Sandbækken outaveraged Round 1 and 2 leader Paul Stott (above right) of Ireland by more than 32 pins. Stott, who managed 1605 (200.63) in the third round, slipped to second place with 5254. Third place belonged to England's Steve Thornton, who fell one spot behind an 1681 series with 5168 total.

Mattias Wetterberg, Sweden, and Aleksey Parshukov, Russia, finished in fourth and fifth place with 5129 and 5122, respectively. Juhani Tonteri of Finland stayed in sixth place with 5091 and was followed by Tom van der Vliet (left), Netherlands, with 5053.

Melvin Ocando (right) of Spain took the eighth and last berth into Saturday's finals with 5048 and an average of 210.33. Tolga Sismanogullar of Turkey, who posted the second-highest 1798 series today missed the cut by 30 pins in 10th place with 5018.

Wegner (left), a member of the Swedish youth national team, rolled the highest eight-game block of the championships, men and women, with 1875, an average of 234.38, to leap from third to first place and to take the No. 1 seed in the women's finals with 5360 and an overall average of 223.33. Wegner had games of 224, 200, 244 , 214, 221, 278, 257 and 237.

Previous leader Birgit Pöppler (right), Germany, had a solid 1651 series on the third day but slipped to second place with 5250. 16-year-old Maria Bulanova (1813) of Russia and Andrea E. Hansen (below left; 1801) of Norway also cracked the 1800-bar to move into third and fourth place with 5181 and 5090, respectively.

Last year's second-place finisher Lisa John, England, slipped from second to fifth place with 5077 behind a sub-par 1591 series. Sixth and seventh place belonged to defending champion Sanna Pasanen, Finland, and her fellow countrywoman Reija Lundén with 5053 and 5031, resp.

Rounding out the top eight was Tamara Adler (right) of Austria, who hit the cutoff number with 4897 and an average of 204.04. Priscilla Maaswinkel (1694), Netherlands, and Bigi Manico (1683), Switzerland, finished strong but fell two and seven pins short of the top 8.

The top eight men and women will return on Saturday, October 18, for the single-elimination match play finals in bets-of-three games format starting at 9 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) with the quarterfinals. In each round, the highest seeded player bowls the lowest seeded player and so on.