Dennis Eklund shoots his second consecutive perfecto in the 5th Storm San Marino Open

    07/11/09

    2009 European Bowling Tour #8

    Canadian MacLelland cracks 1500-bar to move into second place

    2009EBT08DennisEklund.jpgDennis Eklund (pictured left), who rolled the tournament's first 300 game in the 16th qualifying squad on Thursday evening, carried the momentum into Squad 17 on Friday morning at Rose’n Bowl in Serravalle when he rolled his second perfecto of the tournament.

    The Swede sandwiched the perfecto between games of 191 and 150, 187 and though he finished with 234, 233, he was unable to improve his 1326 total from Thursday and finished with 1295. Eklund had another 1295 in Squad 18, took a break in Squad 19 and re-entered once again in Squad 20.

    After a slow start (170), Eklund fired games of 266, 242, 247, 253 and 262 (1270/5) en route to lead the squad and to rocket into sixth place in the overall qualifying standings with 1440 and an average of 240.00.

    With three more squads and the ultimate one-game Desperado Squad to go, Luca Osella from Italy, continued to lead with 1542 (257.00).

    2009EBT08DanMacLelland.jpgStarting the day in fifth place with 1433, Canadian Dan MacLelland (right), the Most Valuable Players for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 U.S. collegiate bowling seasons, became the second player in this year's tournament, who cracked the 1500-bar. MacLelland led Squad 18 with 1515 total (252.50) including two 250 and two 260s to leap into second place.

    Amanda Fagan, United States, was second to MacLelland with 1420 including 48 pins handicap, a standard for women on the European Bowling Tour, and moved into 12th place. The wife of PBA champion Mike Fagan (25th, 1381) is currently the top-ranked woman in the tournament and one of just two women (Veronica Lantto, Sweden, 37th, 1337, is the other) in the top 38.

    2009EBT08NicoJoris.jpgBelgium's Nico Joris (left) had six games between 226 and 257 to set the pace in Squad 19 with 1458 (243.00) and to overtake fourth place. Eklund's compatriot Mikael Kanold led the 17th squad with 1402 (233.67) and finished the day in 17th place.

    Jürgen Neumann , Germany, holds the 38th and last spot to advance with 1345 pinfall total or an average of 224.17.

    The 5th Storm San Marino Open is the 8th stop of the 2009 European Bowling Tour and one of the Tour's "Majors". The tournament will be held at Rose’n Bowl in Serravalle, San Marino from July 4-12, 2009.

    The total prize fund is 55.000 Euro with 10.000 Euro going to the winner. Women receive 8 pins handicap each game. As an EBT Major, there are 100 ranking points at stake for the winner of the men's and women's rankings, respectively.

    Qualifying continues until Saturday, July 11th. A total of 48 players will advance to the finals on Sunday: The top 38 players from the qualifying plus the top 3 from the squads conducted on July 4-5, the top 4 from the squads conducted on July 6-8 and the top 3 from the Desperado Squad. The top 6 qualifiers will earn two byes, while qualifiers 6-12 will get one.

    The other 36 will bowl four games from scratch to the top 18, who will meet qualifiers 6-12 in round two. They bowl another 4-game set from scratch to cut to the top 10, who will join the top six qualifiers in single-elimination match play over two games total pinfall.

    The highest seeded player bowls the lowest seeded, the second-highest seeded players bowls the second-lowest and so on. The field will be cut to 8, 4 then 2, who will bowl for the EBT "major" title and the 10.000 Euro top prize.

     


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    Qualifying Standings after Friday, July 10, 2009

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