Former Austrian national team member Franz Hahn (pictured left) proved that he still has it when he led the opening squad of the 7th Columbia 300 Vienna Open Tuesday afternoon at Plus Bowling in Vienna, Austria.

Hahn, who participated in four World Championships from 1979 till 1991, rolled games of 241, 233, 226, 189, 206 and 191 to lead a field of 48 players with 1286 six-game total and an average of 214.33. As the squad leader Hahn has already secured his spot for the finals next Sunday.

Second place belonged to Stefan Schmid (right), who finished with a 244 game and an 1242 total.

Third and fourth place belonged to Austria's No. 1 bowler, Thomas Gross, and lefty Walter Rieger (l-r)  who checked in with 1225 and 1209, respectively. The team mates set the early pace in the Doubles event with 2434 or 202.83 team average.

Austrian national team member Patricia Klug (right) was the best woman in Squad one with 1189 including 48 pins handicap, a standard for women on the European Bowling Tour. Patricia and husband Richard Klug (1123) were the second-best doubles with 2312.

Qualifying continues on Tuesday with Squad 2 at 4pm and Squad 3 at 8pm.

The 7th Columbia 300 Vienna Open is the 11th stop of the 2009 European Bowling Tour and one of the Tour's "Majors". The tournament will be held from Tuesday Sept. 29 through Sunday Oct. 4, 2009 at the renovated 32-lane Plus Bowling in Vienna, Austria.

More than 340 players from 27 countries will compete for an increased total prize money of 68.130 Euro - 57.900 € in Singles and 10.230 € in Doubles. The singles champion will receive the 6.000 Euro top prize while the doubles winners will split 1.600.

Once again the qualifying for the Vienna Open finals is contested as a doubles tournament. Each duo rolls at least one six-game block. Unlimited re-entries with different partners are possible but each player can only cash once with the same partner.

The team with the highest total pinfall including handicap will be declared the winner (no finals will be played). The top 20 doubles will cash. Bigi Manico, Switzerland and Tanya Cuva (nee Petty) are the defending champion.

Qualifying runs from Tuesday through Saturday and ends with the ultimate one-game Desperado Squad on Saturday night Oct. 3 slated for 11.30 pm local time (GMT +1). Women receive 8 pins handicap each game, a standard on the European Bowling Tour

A total of 64 players will qualify for the Vienna Open finals on Sunday, Oct. 4:

 

• the top 52 players from the overall qualifying standings
• the first player each from Squad 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, who is not among the top 52 (total 6 players)
• and the top 6 from the Desperado Squad.

The top 8 qualifying leaders will bypass the first round of the finals.

The other 52 players will bowl 6 games starting from scratch to cut to the top 22, who will join the top qualifiers in Round Two.

Those 30 players will bowl another 6 games starting from scratch after which the field will be trimmed to the top 18, who will carry their pinfall forward into Round Three. After another 6-game block the top 4 with the highest 12-game total will advance to the stepladder finals.

The No. 4 seed meets the No. 3 in the opening match and the winner takes on the No. 2 seed for the right to bowl the top seed for the title, 100 ranking points and the 6.000 Euro top prize.

 

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