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Martin Larsen, Sean Rash shoot 1447 to take the lead in Singles

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10/01/10

2010 European Bowling Tour #15

Larsen shoots tournament's first 300; Rash and Lynda Barnes move into second place in Doubles

Martin Larsen (pictured left), Sweden, rolled the first 300 game of the 8th Columbia 300 Vienna Open in Squad 8 on Thursday at Plus Bowling in Vienna, Austria, en route to overtake the lead in the qualifying for the Singles finals on Sunday.

The 3-time world champion, who was in second place in the overall qualifying standings after shooting a 1405 series in Squad 7, Started Squad 8 with a 234 game, then posted his 23rd career 300-game and closed out the set with 258, 208, 211 and 236 for 1447 pinfall total and an average of 241.17.

4-time PBA champion Sean Rash (right), United States, who was in third place behind a 1390 series in Squad 7, rolled games of 277, 240, 256, 255, 192 and 227 to tie Larsen at 1447. Rash overtook second place due to Larsen's higher last game.

Squad 7 leader Mik Stampe (left) , Denmark, who led the field with 1428 slipped to third place.

2009 Vienna Open runner-up Stuart Williams (pictured right with Wendy Macpherson), England, jumped into fourth place with 1394. The PBA exempt player had games of 247, 226, 226, 216, 238 and 241. Defending Vienna Open champion Thomas Gross, Austria, slipped one spot to 5th place with 1385 and is followed by two-hander Osku Palermaa, Finland, in 6th place with 1384 and Tore Torgersen, Norway, in 7th with 1378.

Rounding out the top 8, who will earn one bye for Sunday's finals, was 2010 World Champion in Doubles, Mathias Årup, Sweden, in 8th place with 1371.

T

he cut for 52nd place improved by another 33 pins. With 223 players in the books, Klaus-Uwe Lischka, Germany, is currently the "man on the bubble" with 1226 or an average of 204.33.

Larsen and Palermaa (pictured left) held on to the lead in Doubles with 2789 pinfall total. Rash and Lynda Barnes (right, 1307) moved into second place with 2754.

Palermaa and Årup (left) were second in Squad 8 with 2697, good for 6th place overall.

Anders Lousdal and Carsten Warming Hansen, Denmark moved into 7th place and were followed by Larsen and Torgersen, who overtook 8th place, both with 2683. Williams teamed with former PWBA star Wendy Macpherson, United States to move into 9th place with 2653.

PBA star Chris Barnes (right), who won the Masters gold at the 2010 Men's World Championships, and current European Bowling Tour ranking leader Dominic Barrett, England, had 2619, good for 10th place. Qualifying continues on Thursday with Squad 9 at 8pm CET.

Bowlingdigital's Facebook account was updated with the first photo album. To view the photos, click here

The 8th Columbia 300 Vienna Open is the 15th stop of the 2010 European Bowling Tour and one of the Tour's "Gold" events. The tournament will be held from Tuesday Sept. 28 through Sunday Oct. 3, 2010 at 32-lane Plus Bowling in Vienna, Austria.

Since the Ankara Open and the Austria Challenge have been cancelled and the English Open has lost its EBT status, the 2010 EBT Tour consists of 18 events - 2 EBT Platinum tournament (formerly Premier), 6 EBT Gold tournaments (formerly Major), 6 EBT Silver tournaments (formerly Challenger) and 4 EBT Satellite tournaments (new category).

More than 300 players from 26 countries will compete for an increased total prize money of 70.630 Euro - 60.400 € in Singles and 10.230 € in Doubles. The singles champion will receive the 7.000 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. Pictured right: Clara Juliana Guerrero, Colombia, and Stuart Williams, England, won the Doubles competition in 2009.

Qualifying runs from Tuesday through Saturday and ends with the ultimate one-game Desperado Squad on Saturday night Oct. 2 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. 3:

the top 52 players from the overall qualifying standings
the first player each from Squad 1-6, 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, 150 ranking points and the 7.000 Euro top prize.

Tournament Format
Schedule
Prize Fund

In the 2009 title match, hometown favorite Thomas Gross (pictured left) defeated tournament leader Stuart Williams, England, in a high scoring encounter, 246-231, en route to become the first Austrian winner in the Columbia 300 Vienna Open. Britt Brøndsted (right), Denmark, was the best female bowler in 10th place to win the women's ranking. Review the live streaming of the stepladder finals here.

Click here to review Bowlingdigital's Live Coverage from the 2009 Columbia 300 Vienna Open
or click here to go straight to the 2009 VO Video Section.

Since the inaugural Vienna Open in the year 2003, Bowlingdigital covers the event live from Plus Bowling with stories and results after each round commencing Monday Sept. 27 all the way through to the finals on Sunday Oct. 3.

Once again, our Swiss friends Flavio Cuva (left) and Beat Grauwiler (right) will be on hand to support the Live Coverage with our much-anticipated high definition videos and photos.

Defending fifth-place Desperado Squad advancer from last year, Lucas Wiseman (pictured left) of USBC Communications, will also return and fill in as play-by-play announcer.

Bowlingdigital will be providing free Live Streaming of the four-player stepladder finals on Sunday, Oct. 3rd starting at 5pm CET. We are also planning to provide live streaming broadcasts of portions of the qualifying and the final rounds prior to the stepladder.