The finals of the 8th Columbia 300 Vienna Open started on Sunday morning at 8am CET at Plus Bowling in Vienna with the first of three six-game rounds. The women got off to a great start as nine out of 12 made the cut for the second round.

Bianca Wiekeraad (pictured left), Netherlands, paced the 56-player field - 12 women and 44 men - with 1450 including 48 pins women's handicap to lead the top 22 into the second round. The Dutch national team member posted games of 206, 270, 211, 247, 222 and 246, an average of 233.67.

Joining Wiekeraad in Final Round Two, which will start from scratch, were Wendy Macpherson (3rd, 1398), above right on the left, Piritta Kantola, Finland (5th, 1379), Lynda Barnes (7th, 1367), above right on the right, Tina Stickney (left), all United States (12th, 1326), Nadine Geissler, Germany (15th, 1310), Kamilla Kjeldsen, Denmark (18th, 1306), Ghislaine van der Tol, Netherlands (21st, 1283), and Janin Ribguth (right), Germany, who hit the cutoff number for 22nd place with 1273.

The 9th woman in Round Two will be Nicki Ainge, England, who finished qualifying among the top 8 and received a bye for the first round.

Young Finn Perttu Jussila (left) finished his six-game block with back-to-back 240s to beat Wiekeraad's scratch total by one pin with 1403 and the field-best average of 233.83. Tore Torgersen (right), Norway, was fourth with 1382 including a 278 game.

Current men's ranking leader Dominic Barrett, England, made the cut in 11th place with 1333 closing out his set with 237, 261 and 247. His compatriots Stuart Williams and Rob Thurlby, who finished second and fourth last year, remained in the race for the 2010 Vienna Open title after finishing in 13th and 16th place with 1321 and 1308, respectively.

The two U.S. men in the round, Chris Klerk and PBA and USBC Hall of Famer Pete Weber landed in 14th and 17th place well above of the cut with 1321 and 17th place.

The six Austrian bowlers, who made the qualifying cut, including defending champion Thomas Gross were all eliminated in Round One. Rene Landl, who advanced to the finals through the Desperado Squad, was the top Austrian finisher in 25th place with 1258 followed by Alex Rauscher in 35th place with 1220 and Gross in 39th with 1204.

Thomas Tybl (pictured left with Thomas Gross, left), who won the gold medal in Doubles at the 2007 Men's European Championships here at Plus Bowling in Vienna, finished 49th (1141) with fellow national ream member Benjamin Kubalek in 50th place (1131) and Anton Stiel (right) in 55th place (1084).

Among those, who failed to advance, were current women's ranking leader and 2008 EBT women's ranking champion, Nina Flack, Sweden (26th, 1254), three-time EBT ranking champion and EBT Masters winner, Paul Moor, England (34th, 1224). four-time EBT ranking champion and World Ranking Masters winner, Gery Verbruggen, Belgium (38th, 1207) and World Champion in Doubles, Mathias Ã…rup, Sweden (1150, 47th).

The top 22 players from Round One will join the top 8 qualifiers in Round Two. After six games starting from scratch, the field will be trimmed to the top 18, who will advance to Round Three with the pinfall from Round Two being carried forward.

After another 6-game block the top 4 players with the highest 12-game total will advance to the stepladder finals. Bowlingdigital will be providing Live Streaming of the four-player stepladder finals on Sunday, Oct. 3rd starting at 5pm CET.

Bowlingdigital's Facebook account will be regularly updated with photos by Beat Grauwiler.
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