Kimmo Lehtonen and Joonas Jehkinen of Finland (pictured left, r-l) paced a field of 33 teams Monday morning at Khalifa International Bowling Center averaging 227.42 for six games on the 38 ft. Atlanta pattern to take the early lead in the Men's World Championships Doubles competition.

The lefties started with a game of 493 to take the lead and never look back. They added 480, 441, 462, 401 and 454 to set the pace with 2729 (329 over based on a 200 average).

Top 3 Squad 1: L-R O'Neill, Fagan, Jehkinen, Lehtonen, Liew and Ridhwann. Click on the image to enlarge it.

Lehtonen, who won the silver medal in Doubles when the World Championships visited Abu Dhabi for the first time in the year 1999, led the way with 1432, the highest six-game block in the Doubles event so far. Jehkinen, who admits that Lehtonen is his idol, contributed 1297.

Team USA's Bill O'Neill and Mike Fagan (left, l-r), who were not in the top 4 after three games, closed out their set with 436, 452 and 490 to finish Squad 1 in second place with 2667 total and an average of 222.25.

O'Neill, who won three of his four gold medals at World Championships in 2010 in Munich, Germany, had 1294 while Fagan posted 1373.

Malaysians Syafiq Ridhwan and Alex Liew (above right, r-l), who were in the top 4 after each of the six games, slipped from second to third place despite a 474 final game trailing the Americans by just five pins with 2662 and an average of 221.83.

Korea's Hong Haesol and Kim Kyungmin (left, l-r) had a slow start into the event, but rebounded with games of 483, 419 and 477 to help grab fourth place with 2584 and an average of 215.33. The top 4 duos at the end of the qualifying will advance to the medal round slated for 13.30 local time on Tuesday.

Just outside the top 4 were Denmark's Frederik Øhrgaard and Jimmy Mortensen (above right, l-r), who were fifth with 2570 followed by Singles silver medalist Shaker Al Hassan and Nayef Eqab Jabber (left, l-r), United Arab Emirates, in sixth place with 2558.

Dan MacLelland of Canada, who defeated Al Hassan to win the gold medal in Singles yesterday, and team mate Francois Lavoie (right, l-r) were second after five games but slipped to seventh place after finishing with back-to-back 346 games.

1999 Singles gold medalist Gery Verbruggen had the only other 1400-plus series (1411) to finish in eight place with Jean-Marc Samain on 2519.

With the 66 bowlers of Squad 1 having completed 12 of 24 games in All-Events (combined scores in Singles, Doubles, Trios and Teams), Lehtonen (left) sets the tone with 2780 total and an average of 231.67. MacLelland was 26 pins behind in second place with 2754 (229.50) and Verbruggen (right) leaped into third place with 2690 (224.17).

Bowlers of Squad 2 and 3 will bowl their six games this afternoon starting a 13.30 and 18.00 local time (GST) with Squad 4 to follow on Tuesday morning at 9.00 after which the field will be cut to the top 4 who advance to the medal round.

No. 1 will bowl No. 4 and No. 2 meets No. 3 in a one-game semi-final match. The winners bowl for gold and silver while the losers share the bronze medal.