European Masters champion Mads Sandbækken (pictured left) of Norway rolled the first 1200-series of the 46th QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup Tuesday morning at Bowling de Provence in Toulon, France en route to overtake the lead in the men's division with 2260 as the 46 players of Squad A have completed 10 of 20 qualifying games.

Sandbækken rolled games of 233, 206, 235, 290 and 243 for 1207, an average of 241.4 for the second block, 154 pins better than his first block on Monday (1153).

Alejandro Reyna (right), Costa Rica, who was fourth after the first block with 1118 added 1082 to move into second place with 2200. Day one leader Biboy Rivera, Philippines, slipped to third place with 2174 behind a sub-par 993 series.

Joonas Jähi, Finland, used four games between 224 and 237 and a low game of 172 for 1093 to sit mere one pin behind Rivera in fourth place with 2173.

German standout Achim Grabowski (pictured left), who will soon retire from the national team after a highly successful career, had a 278 in the second game en route to the second-highest 1134 series this morning to leap into fifth place with 2150.

Kazuyuki Sakamoto, Japan, had the only other 1100-plus series of 1128 including high games of 258 and 237 to jump into sixth place with 2149.

With the 45 players of Squad B still to bowl the second block Burak Natal, Turkey, holds the 24th and final place to survive the first cut with 1948 or an average of 194.80.

Men Squad B was supposed to start their second block at 11.45 CET but there is a delay due to power failure during the Squad A.

Record 167 players (91 men and record 76 women) from 92 countries bowl for the coveted World Cup titles. Men and women bowl in separate divisions each split into two squads.

The total number of participants broke the previous record of 166 set in the 40th BWC in Singapore in 2004. The number of females bowlers broke the previous record of 73 set in Singapore, Caracas (2006) and St. Peters burgh (2007) .

To view the complete list of participating countries and players click here .

All photos will be published on Bowlingdigital's Facebook account.
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The preliminaries consist of 4 blocks of 5 games with the top 24 men and the top 24 women after 20 games advancing to the intermediate round. The top 24 players bowl another 8 games with the pinfall total from the preliminaries being carried forward.

The top 8 men and the top 8 women after 28 games will bowl a further 7 games round robin match play plus 1 game position round total 8 games) with 30 pins bonus per win and 15 for a tie. The top 3 men and the top 3 women after 36 games including bonus pins will determine the champions in a stepladder final in best-of-three games format on Saturday Oct. 23.

Bowlingdigital.com will cover the event live from Bowling de Provence with stories and results after each round, high quality photos and high definition videos commencing Sunday Oct. 17 with the Opening Ceremonies all the way through to the stepladder on Saturday Oct. 3.

Bowlingdigital will also simulcast all broadcast coverage provided by BOWL.com.