There were no changes to the leaderboard in the third squad of the Men's World Championships Trios qualifying Wednesday evening as squad leaders Choi Bokeum, Kang Heewon and Shin Seunghyeon (pictured left, r-l) toppled 2032 pins, an average of 225.78, to tie their teammates from Korea for fifth place.

The Koreans rebounded from a slow start (617) with 704 and 711. Seunghyeon led the team with 735, Doubles gold medalist Bokeum had 684 and Heewon added 613.

Squad 1 leaders Carsten Warming Hansen, Frederik Øhrgaard and Thomas Larsen (right, l-r) of Denmark emerged as overall leaders after the first block on long oil (43 ft. Tokyo pattern).

The Danes came out of the gates with a 732 game, and continued to strike as they added games of 686 and 740 for a three-game total of 2158 (239.78 average), just 38 pins shy of the Championships record set by the United States in 2010. Larsen led the team with 725 and was immediately followed by Øhrgaard (718) and Hansen (715).

The next four places belong to Squad 2 trios. Trailing Denmark by 79 pins to sit in second place were David Simard, Francois Lavoie and Dan MacLelland (left, l-r) of Canada 2079.

Swedes Martin Paulsson, Robert Andersson and Joachim Karlsson (right, l-r) were just one pin behind in third place with 2078.

Rounding out the top 4, who will make it to the medal round after another three-game block on medium oil (38 ft. Atlanta pattern), were Team USA's Mike Fagan, Marshall Kent and Sean Rash (left, l-r), who finished their 2038 series with 749, the highest game of the Trios event so far.

Doubles gold medalist Park Jongwoo, who had the field-best 760 series, and his Korean team mates Kim Kyungmin and Hong Haesol (right, r-l) maintained fifth place with 2032.

Places 7-9 belonged to Squad 3 trios. Sweden's Martin Larsen, Jesper Svensson and Daniel Fransson (left, l-r) followed a 613 starting game with a big 730 game. Despite Fransson and Larsen were perfect through six frames they finished the game with only 681 for 2024, missing the top 4 by just 14 pins.

PBA Player of the Year Jason Belmonte, David Porto and Singles bronze medalist Sam Cooley (right, l-r) of Australia and  were further 13 pins back in eighth place with 2011 including three consistent games of 653, 672 and 686.

Multiple World Champions Bill O'Neill, Tommy Jones and Chris Barnes (left, l-r), who hold the Championship record for three games with 2196 (244 average), sandwiched a 633 low game between 682 and 693 to sit in ninth place with 2008.

10th place Danes Jimmy Mortensen, Mik Stampe and Jesper Agerbo (right, r-l) are just 43 pins off the pace for the top 4 with 1995 and an average of 221.67.

The second block concludes the preliminaries Thursday with Squad 2 starting at 8.30 Gulf Standard Time (GST) followed by Squad 3 at 12.15 and Squad 1 at 16.00 after which the field will be cut to the top four trios for the medal round starting at 19.15.

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.

Dan MacLelland (left) leads all 272 bowlers, representing 49 countries, after 15 out of 24 games in All-Events (combined scores in Singles, Doubles, Trios and Teams) with 3492 total or an average of 232.80.

The World Champion in Singles is followed by two Koreans, Choi Bokeum (right; 3457) and Shin Seunghyeon (3452), two Swedes, Jesper Svensson (3425) and Martin Larsen (3420), two Americans, Tommy Jones (3410) and Mike Fagan (3371), and two Finns, Petteri Salonen and Kimmo Lehtonen (both 3365).

Rounding out the top 10 is Manuel Otalora of Colombia with 3353 and an average of 223.53. The top 3 after 24 games will earn the medals in All-Events while the top 24 will advance to the Championships-ending Masters competition on Sunday, December 14.