PBA exempt bowler Chris Loschetter (pictured left), United States, improved his pervious six-game total by 210 pins on Thursday morning to leap 83 spots into 10th place in the overall qualifying standings in the 2008 Brunswick Euro Challenge.

Loschetter led the 10th qualifying squad with 1290 pinfall total including a high game of 234 and a low game of 199.

PBA champion Mike Fagan, United States and Jason Belmonte (r-l), Australia, remained unchallenged atop the leaderboard with 1390 and 1373 pinfall total, resp.


Dutch Wendy van der List (left) is the sole woman in the top 16, who will bypass the first round of the finals, in 7th place with 1301 including 48 pins handicap, a standard on the European Bowling Tour for women.

Alexandre Vahidi, France, currently mans the 16th spot with 1259 and an average of 209.83.

Rasmus Ussing, Denmark, is the "man on the bubble" in 52nd place with 1171 and an average of 195.17.

The Brunswick Euro Challenge is the fifth stop on the 2008 European Bowling Tour and one of the Tour's "majors". The BEC offers total prize fund of 90,000 Euros (currently approx. $136,500) and offers special prizes that will be given in categories such as youth encouragement, "B" bowlers and ladies.

The 2008 Brunswick Euro Challenge sponsored by Brunswick Bowling is organized by Brunswick distributor Valcke Bowling.

Qualifying will continue Thursday through Saturday with at least four squads each day and ends with squad #22 and the ultimate Desperado Squad on Saturday night, March 15.

A total of 64 players will qualify for the finals. The top 16 players will receive one bye into step 2 and will seeded 1-16.

The following 48 players will qualify for step 1:

• Players positioned 17-52 in the qualifying
• the top 6 from a separate standing for the squads conducted March 7-9, who are not among the top 52
• the top 6 from the Desperado Squad.

Those 48 will bowl six games starting from scratch to cut to the top 16 , who will meet the top 16 qualifiers in the first match play round. Match play is best-of-three games single-elimination. The field will be cut to 16, 8 and then four, who will determine the champion in a stepladder final.


Bowlingdigital will cover the event live from Paris with updates after each squad and round, respectively, and exclusive video footage commencing Thursday, March 13 all the way through to the finals on Sunday, March 16.