Semenov, Williams crack top 5 in Brunswick Euro Challenge

Ivan Semenov from Russia and Stuart Williams (pictured left), England, led Squad 14 in the Brunswick Euro Challenge at Strike Bowling Club in Thessaloniki, Greece, en route to crack the top 5 in the qualifying standings. Semenov had high games of 246, 249 and 266 in games 2-4 to move into fourth place with 1327, a 221.17 average. Williams was close behind at 1321 including a 255 game, good enough for fifth place.

Leonidas Maragos from Greece held onto the lead at halftime (14 out 27 squads) with 1395 and an average of 232.50. Rodrigo Hermes from Brazil, who comes from a second-place finish in the Catalonia Open, the fourth stop of the 2007 European Bowling Tour, is second at 1390, with Nikita Koshelev, Russia, in third place at 1365.

Qualifying continues on Thursday with Squads 15 and 16 at 4pm and 8pm local time. Qualifying ends on Saturday, March 17 with the 27th and final qualifying squad scheduled for 8pm followed by the Desperado Squad, the ultimate one-game chance to qualify for the finals on Sunday, March 18.

Bowlingdigital will cover the event live from Thessaloniki commencing March 15 all the way through to the TV finals on Sunday.

The BEC is the fifth stop of the 2007 European Bowling Tour and one of the Tour's "Majors". Since the cancellation of the Viernheim Open, the Brunswick Euro Challenge is the richest event on the 2007 European Bowling Tour.

The total prize fund for the Open Division, Women and B-Bowlers plus special prizes is 90.000 Euro (approx. US$116,600). The Open Division champion will pocket 16.000 €.

A total of 64 players will qualify for the finals on Sunday, March 18. The top 52 from the qualifying, the top six from the qualifying squads conducted March 9-11 not among those 52 and the top 6 from the Desperado Squad.

The top 16 qualifying leaders will bypass the first round. The other 48 finalists roll six games starting from scratch. The top 16 will join the 16 qualifying leaders in the best-of-three games single elimination finals. The highest ranked player will bowl the lowest seed, etc.

The rounds of 32, 16 and 8 trim the field from 16, to eight, then to four. The remaining four players will be seeded 1 to 4 for the stepladder finals to determine the champion in three one-game matches: No. 4 vs. No. 3, winner vs. No. 2, winner vs. No. 1.