Multiple World Champion Martin Larsen became the first player in this year's Brunswick Euro Challenge, who cracked the 1400-bar.

The Swede came out of the gates quickly Thursday evening at Plaza Bowling in Saint Maximin, France, a spacious 28-lane center, and registered the first 500-series of the tournament for the first two games (267, 238). The righthander added games of 230, 255, 212 and 246 for the field-best 1448 series, an average of 241.33 for six games.

The Scandinavian bowlers dominated squad #12. Three Swedes and three Finns moved into the top 16, who will bypass the first round of the finals on Sunday, March 16.

Larsen's Compatriots Mikael Kanold (left), who won the third EBT event in Tilburg, Netherlands, and Swedish National Team head coach Tomas Leandersson had 1319 and 1295 to leap into 11th and 14th place.

Multiple European Champion Petteri Salonen led the Finns with 1325, good for 7th place. 2006 World Cup champion Osku Palermaa (right) sits mere two pins behind in 9th place with 1223. Mika Heino overtook 12th place with 1315.

Rafael Medina, Venezuela, who led the qualifying after 7 off 22 squads, mans the 16th place with 1293 and an average of 215.50. Gery Hacquin, Belgium, holds the 52nd and final place to advance with 1221, an average of 203.50.

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.