Japan's Daisuke Yoshida and Shusaku Asato, Korea's Shin Seunghyeon and Kang Heewon, and Sweden's Daniel Fransson and Martin Larsen finished Squad 3 with some big scores to move into the top 4 in the Doubles preliminaries of the Men's World Championships Monday evening at Khalifa International Bowling Center in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

L-R Kang Heewon, Shin Seunghyeon, Daisuke Yoshida, Shusaku Asato, Martin Larsen and Daniel Fransson. Click on the image to enlarge it.

The Japanese bowlers, who started with four games between 462 and 482 before they suffered a 397 fifth game, needed a 456 last game to overtake Kimmo Lehtonen and Joonas Jehkinen of Finland (pictured right, r-l), who held the lead since Squad 1 with 2729 six-game total and an average of 227.42, by one pin.

Lefty Yoshida finished with 249 and 1457, the highest series in the Championships so far. Anchor Asato had the chance to tie the Finns with a strike on his last ball but managed six pins only to take second place with 2725 (227.08).

The Koreans needed to average 260 in the last game to tie Finland for the lead but managed "only" 254 (Seunghyeon 253, Heewon 255) to leap into third place with 2717 (226.42).

The Swedes (+197) needed 532 to tie Finland or to beat Korea or Colombia's Fabio Garcia and Jaime Gonzales, who were tied with the Koreans after five games (both +209) and to beat USA's Bill O'Neill and Mike Fagan, who were next to the Finns with 2667.

Fransson, who had the front eight before a 10-pin in the ninth ended his bid for perfection, finished with 269 and Larsen struck out for 222 to help grab fourth place with 2688 (224.00) as the Colombians fell behind due to a 376 last game.

The top 4 have to sit and wait until the teams of Squad 4 have completed their six-game preliminaries on the 38 ft. Atlanta pattern on Tuesday morning starting at 9.00 GST after which the field will be cut to the top 4 who advance to the medal round slated to begin at 13.30.

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.

With the 201 of 272 bowlers from 49 countries having completed 12 of 24 games in All-Events (combined scores in Singles, Doubles, Trios and Teams), Kimmo Lehtonen (left) remained in the driver's seat with 2780 total and an average of 231.67.

World Champion in Singles, Dan MacLelland (right) of Canada, is 26 pins behind in second place with 2754 (229.50). Four bowlers of Squad 3 positioned themselves in places 3 to 6.

Thanks to his 1457 series, Daisuke Yoshida moved into third place with 2745 (228.75). Martin Larsen added 1352 to his 1389 series in Singles to sit in fourth place with 2741 (228.42). Kang Heewon and Shin Seunghyeon took over fifth and sixth place with 2734 (227.83) and 2717 (226.42), resp.