Team USA's Mika Fagan, Sean Rash and Marshall Kent (pictured left, l-r), who started the second day of the Trios preliminaries at the Men's World Championships in third place in their Squad and fourth overall, moved to the top of the leaderboard as Squad 2 has finished the six-game preliminaries.

The Americans had games of 748, 706 and 652 on medium oil (38 ft. Atlanta pattern) Thursday morning at Khalifa International Bowling Center in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, to set the pace with 4144 total and an overall average of 230.22.

Fagan (right) led the team with 1515 (252.50 average), the highest six-game block of the Championships so far. The four-time PBA champion, who bowls in his first World Championship, averaged 266 for the day including games of 280, 268 and 250 and a 798 series. Rash added 1323 and Kent contributed 1306.

Korea's Park Jongwoo, Kim Kyungmin and Hong Haesol (left, l-r) used games of 683, 680 and 667 to leap two spots into second place with 4062 or an average of 225.67. Jongwoo, who won the gold medal in Doubles two day ago, led the way with 1454 and was followed by Kyungmin (1330) and Haesol (1278).

Swede's Martin Paulsson, Robert Andersson and Joachim Karlsson (right, r-l) slipped from second to third place due to a low-scoring second game with 3950 and 219.44 average. The Swedes, who had games of 675, 698 and 705 yesterday, sandwiched 671 and 694 around a 507 game today.

Denmark's Jesper Agerbo, Mik Stampe and Jimmy Mortensen moved into fourth place in Squad 2 with 3874 (215.22) behind games of 638, 615 and 626 and a 3874 series today.

Malaysia with Adrian Ang, Alex Liew and Zulmazran Zulkifli (right, l-r) was 21 pins behind the Danes in fifth place with 3853. The Malaysians are out of the race for the medals like Canadians David Simard, Francois Lavoie and Dan MacLelland (below left, l-r), who started the day as the squad leader and in second place overall, but slipped to sixth place with 3832 behind a sup-par 1753 series today.

Tobias Börding (right) of Germany, who finished second to Chris Barnes, United States, in the QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup in Wroclaw, Poland, last month almost rolled the first 300 game of this Championhip in the last game of Squad 2. He left a 10-pin on his final shot, ending his bid at perfection.

Squad 3 and Squad 1 will bowl their three-game block on medium oil starting at 12.15 and 16.00 Gulf Standard Time (GST), respectively, after which the field of 86 trios will be cut to the top four for the medal round starting this evening at 19.15 with the semifinals (to be held simultaneously on lanes 7-8 and 11-12).

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 (on lanes 9-10) while the losers share the bronze medal.

With his 798 series today, Mike Fagan took over the lead in All-Events (combined scores in Singles, Doubles, Trios and Teams) as Squad bowlers have completed 18 out of 24 games. Fagan has totaled 4169 pins, an average of 231.61.

Singles champion Dan MacLelland (left) slipped to second place with 4101 (227.83) with Daisuke Yoshida (right, with his teammates Toshihiko Takahashi and Shusaku Asato, r-l) of Japan in third place with distant 4035 (224.17).

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.