Knutar, Tuomisalo add their names to the leaderboard in Lahti

    10/12/09

    2009 European Bowling Tour #12

    Valaranta holds on to the lead in Ebonite Lahti Open

    2009EBT12LauraTuomisalo.jpg2009EBT12MattiKnutar.jpg10 players added their names to the leaderboard during squads 3 and 4 Sunday at Lahti Bowl in Lahti, Finland, but day one leader Samu Valaranta held on to the lead in the qualifying of the Ebonite Lahti Open. Valaranta leads the field of 110 players with 1335 six-game total and an average of 222.50.

    Bowlers from Kokkola, Finland, set the tone in squad 3 and 4. Laura Tuomisalo (pictured left)  had games of 180, 206, 218, 225, 258 and 171 (1258) and added 48 pins handicap, a standard for women on the European Bowling Tour, to lead squad 3 with 1306 total. "I was nervous in the last game, but I'm happy now", Tuomisalo said,

    Tuomisalo finished day two qualifying in third position as squad 4 leader Matti Knutar (right) overtook her by 9 pins. Knutar rolled games of 224, 222, 191, 201, 224 and 253 to move into second place with 1315 and an average of 219.17.

    Places 4-11 belong to players from squads 3 and 4: 4. Mika Oksanen, 1292 5. Jenni Mäkelä, 1272 6. Kalle Huusko, 1272 7. Veli-Matti Tissarinen, 1265 8. Magnus Lönnroth, 1265 9. Ari Savola, 1262 10. Sami Heino, 1261 and 11. Petra Korkiamäki, 1253.

    Matti Virta, who was second after day one, fell to 12th place with 1249. The cutoff number for 36th place is currently 1188 or an average of 198.00 held by Perttu Jussila, all from Finland.

    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.


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