Ahmed Al-Awadhi leads top 30 into finals at 14th Bahrain Championship

    03/07/16

    Bahrain

    Bahrain's youth bowler averages over 240 to pace the 103-player field from 19 countries with 2970 including handicap; Squad E & F leaders Kent, Simonsen crack the top 5; Thomas Larsen takes last spot with 2646 (220.50 average)


     

    Ahmed Al-Awadhi, a youth bowler from Bahrain, won the qualifying of the 14th Kingdom of Bahrain International Bowling Championship with 2970 including 7 pins handicap per game, an average of 240.50 for 12 games, to lead the top 30 out of 103 players from 19 countries into the finals on Tuesday and Wednesday.

    Al-Awadhi (pictured above), who led the local qualifying which took place at Funland Bowling Center in Manama in the week before the international qualifying, had six-game series of 1471 and 1499.

    Places 2 and 3 belonged to B squad leaders Anggie Ramirez of Colombia and Danielle McEwan, United States. Ramirez totaled 2921 pins, an average of 236.42, and McEwan, who won her first World Bowling Tour in the H.H. Emir Cup 2016 in Qatar last week, was 47 pins behind with 2874 (232.50).

    PBA champions Marshall Kent and Anthony Simonsen led the last two squads on Monday en route to crack the top 5.

    Kent (left) added 1414 to his 1395 from Sunday's first block to pace squad F with 2809 (234.08) and secure fourth place. Simonsen (right), who had 1379 in the first block and 1409 in the second block, was 21 pins behind in fifth place with 2788 (232.33).

    The top 5 and the best Bahraini bowler, Emir Cup runner-up Yousif Falah, who was seeded sixth behind a 2753 series, will earn three byes for the finals.

    Naif Oqab (left), United Arab Emirates, was second to Simonsen in squad E with 2763, good for 9th place overall. Martin Larsen (right) of Sweden, who was next to Kent in squad F with 2760, leaped into 10th place. Players ranked 7-12 will receive two byes.

    Thomas Larsen, a two-time PBA champion from Denmark, took the 27th and last place to advance from the overall qualifying standings with 2646 and an average of 220.50. Those 27 bowlers will be joined in the finals by the next Bahraini adult and youth bowler, Ahmed Al-Malki (2628) and Omar Rashid (2602) as well as the next female bowler, Tannya Roumimper of Indonesia (2615).

    Photos courtesy of Asian Bowling Federation (ABF).

    The 14th Kingdom of Bahrain International Bowling Championship is the second tournament on the 2016 World Bowling Tour and an Asian Bowling Federation Tour ranking tournament, the second event of the 2016 ABFT season.

    The tournament will be held from March 4-9 at Funland Bowling Center, an 18-laner in Manama, Bahrain. Players will compete for total prize money of US$104,050 with $25,000 going to the winner, $12,500 to the runner-up and $8,000 to the third place finisher. In addition the tournament offers a $1,000 bonus for the first 300 game.

    According to an agreement between World Bowling and the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA), the Bahrain Championship will award a PBA title, if won by a PBA member.

    Qualifying (two 6-game series; unlimited re-entries) runs from March 4-7 for international bowlers (three squads per day). Women and youth bowlers (age 17 and younger) receive seven pins handicap each game.

    Total 30 players advance to the finals on Tuesday and Wednesday, March 8 & 9, including the top 27 qualifiers, the next Bahraini and Bahraini youth bowler and the next female bowler.

    Players 1-6 (top 5 plus the next Bahraini) receive three byes. Players 7-12 earn two byes and players 13-18 get one bye. Players ranked 19-30 advance to the second round.

    Rounds 2-4 consist of six games scratch with the top six players advancing to the next round. The remaining 12 players will bowl a final six-game block scratch before the cut to the top three players for the stepladder finals.

    The No. 2 seed bowls the No. 3 seed in the semifinal match. The winner of that game takes on the top-seeded player for the title and the US$25,000 first-place check. According to the tournament rules, the No. 1 seed must be defeated twice to win the title.

    2016WBTLogo_small.jpg The 2016 World Bowling Tour currently consists of 8 tournaments, six in the Middle East and one each in Germany and Thailand. A ninth event and the only WBT "major" so far is planned for December 2016 during the PBA World Series of Bowling VIII in the USA.

    Players earn ranking points based on how they finish in each event. "Majors" award double points. The current points system is based on a continuous two-year cycle. The top three men and top three women in the annual points list will compete in the season-ending World Bowling Tour Finals (tbd).

    The next stop of the 2016 World Bowling Tour is the Brunswick Euro Challenge, which will be held from March 13-20 at Dream-Bowl Palace in Munich, Germany.

    World Bowling provides governance to international bowling and is made up of 134 bowling international federations. For more information on the World Bowling Tour, click here.

     


    Related Articles


    Ryan Lalisang, Mike Chan set the pace in Squad E & F after the first block
    Ahmed Al-Awadhi leads Bahrain qualifying heading into the last three squads
    Anggie Ramirez paces international field in Bahrain
    Jesper Svensson defeats Jason Belmonte to win 13th Bahrain International Championship
    2016 World Bowling Tour - Schedule, Champions, Men's and Women's Ranking Winners
    2015 WBT Point Rankings - Men and Women

     


    14th Bahrain Championship - Final Qualifying Standings


    Players with 12-game total, including handicap; Y denotes youth, M male and F female bowlers. Note: A and D squad have been canceled.

    300 games (2) - Osku Palermaa, Ahmed Al Khaja.

    Â