Valaranta shoots sole 1300-plus series to lead Lahti Open after Day One Qualifying

    10/11/09

    2009 European Bowling Tour #12

    Lahti Bowl in Lahti, Finland (Oct. 10-18, 2009)

    2009EBT12SamuValaranta.jpg2009EBT12MattiVirta.jpgThe 2009 Ebonite Lahti Open got underway on Saturday with the first two qualifying squads. 70 of the 72 players came from Finland while the remaining two players were Russians.

    Squad 1 was reserved for junior bowlers and Samu Valaranta (pictured left) posted a fine 1335 six-game series, an average of 222.50, including a high game of 290 to take the early lead.

    "I was bit annoyed with the 7-10 split in my last game but luckily I still managed to do ok," said Valaranta afterwards "I’m not planning to re-enter at the moment but we’ll see. I hope this is enough to make the finals."

    Matti Virta (right), who led Squad 2, is a distant second with 1249, followed by Jarmo Sinilaaksoin third (1239) and Lari Marjamäki in fourth (1238).

    Place 5-7 belong to women bowlers, Krista Pöllänen (1233), Marjo Pöntinen (1231) and Reija Lunden (1228), all including 48 pins handicap, a standard for women on the European Bowling Tour.

    Russians Stepan Polyansky (1054) and Kristina Ageenko (804) landed in 48th and 72nd place.

    The Ebonite Lahti Open is the 12th stop of the 2009 European Bowling Tour and one of the Tour's "Challenger" events. The tournament will be held from Oct. 10-18, 2009 at Jouni Helminen's fully renovated Lahti Bowl in Lahti, Finland, and offers an increased total prize fund of 49.200 Euro, or about 72,500 U.S. dollars. The winner will receive the 8.000 Euro top prize.

    Qualifying runs through Saturday, Oct. 17, and ends with Squad 14 and the ultimate one-game Desperado Squad slated for 11.30 p.m. local time (GMT +3) on Saturday night.

    A total of 40 players - the top 36 from the qualifying (six games) and top 4 from the Desperado Squad - will advance to the finals on Sunday, Oct. 18. The top 8 qualifiers will earn one bye and will be seeded into Final Round 2.

    The remaining 32 players will bowl 6 games starting from scratch. The top 12 join the top 8 qualifiers and bowl 5 games from scratch with the top 10 advancing to Round 3. Those 10 players will bowl another 5-game series with the pinfall from Round 2 being carried forward to cut to the top 4 who will advance to the stepladder finals.

    The No. 4 seed meets the No. 3 seed, the winner takes on the No. 2 for the right to bowl the No. 1 for the title. All stepladder matches are single game matches.


    Qualifying Standings after Squad 2/14

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