Oliver Blasé, Germany (l-r, with Swedish national coach Tomas Leandersson) started his six-game qualifying series Thursday night at 10 p.m. with a 166 game but rebounded with five games between 206 and 247 to lead squad #13 with 1301 pinfall total and an average of 216.83. Blasé moved into 13th place in the overall qualifying standings after 13 out off 22 squads.

World Champion Martin Larsen (right), Sweden, continued to lead the field of now 298 players from 33 countries with 1448 (241.33).

Two-handed phenom and USBC spokesperson Jason Belmonte, Australia, is second with 1398 with PBA champion Mike Fagan, United States, in third at 1390.

Diandra Asbaty (left), United States finished five pins behind Blasé Thursday night to move into 13th place.

The 2-time World Ranking Masters and World Master champion improved her total to 1296 including 48 pins handicap, a standard for women on the European Bowling Tour.

With nine qualifying squads to, Leandersson mans the 16th spot with 1259 (215.83).

Peter Sainio, Sweden, is the "man on the bubble" in 52nd place with 1232 or an average of 205.33.

To view more pictures from the 2008 Brunswick Euro Challenge go to Bowlingdigital's Photo Album.

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 Friday with five squads scheduled for 8 and 12 a.m., 4 and 8 p.m. and Midnight and ends on Saturday with squads #19-22 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.