Squad 6 shakes up leaderboard at 5th QubicaAMF Open 2011 in Slovenia

    04/08/11

    2011 European Bowling Tour #7

    Mathias Årup, Brian Voss and Mika Koivuniemi roll 300 games en route to take the lead.

    2010EBT12MathiasArup.jpg2010EBT13BrianVoss2.jpgEight of the 27 players in Squad 6 positioned themselves in the top 11 of the overall qualifying standings in the 5th QubicaAMF Open 2011 Thursday at bowling center Gladiator Arena in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and three of them achieved perfection.

    Swede Mathias Årup, Brian Voss, United States, and Mika Koivuniemi, Finland, each rolled 300 games en route to jump into the lead.

    Årup (pictured left), who was the sole non U.S. gold medalist at the 2010 Men's World Championships (Doubles with Martin Paulsson), had games of 258, 300, 190, 267, 237 and 278 to become the first player who surpassed the 1500-mark with 1530 or an average of 255.

    Voss (above right), a 25-time PBA champion and PBA Hall of Famer, started his six-game series with 287 and 183, then achieved perfection in game #3 and closed out the set with 212, 236 and 269 for 1487 total and an average of 247.83.

    201011PBA09MikaKoivuniemi2.jpg2011EBT07RobertSmith.jpgNine-time PBA champion Koivuniemi (pictured left), who is the frontrunner for PBA Player of the Year honors after winning $250,000 in the 2011 Tournament of Champions, came out of the gates quickly by posting the first 300 game of this year's tournament.

    The "Big Finn" added games of 258, 238, 232, 236 and 213 to overtake third place with 1477 and an average of 246.17.

    Fourth place belonged to seven-time PBA champion Robert Smith (right), United States, with 1463 (243.83). The U.S. Open champion of the year 2000, who now lives in Hong Kong, China, briefly overtook the qualifying lead in Ljubljana, when he led Squad 5 on Thursday afternoon behind games of 221, 257, 211, back-to-back 279s and 216.

    2011EBT04MartinLarsen.jpg2011EBT04OskuPalermaa1.jpgMartin Larsen (left) of Sweden had six games between 222 and 258 in Squad 6 to move into fifth place with 1456. Fresh off his victory in the Track Dream-Bowl Palace Open in Munich, Germany, last weekend, Osku Palermaa, Finland, also had a high game of 258 and low game of 214 to overtake sixth place with 1435.

    The top six players from the first six squads are automatically qualified for the finals on Sunday. However, if any of the players will finish among the top 30, the next player of that list will take advantage.

    2011EBT04PeterLjung.jpg2011EBT04NinaFlack2.jpgPrevious leaders Thomas Gross and Daniel Hahn, both of Austria, fell six spots to seventh and eighth place with 1395 and 1394, respectively.

    Places 9, 10 and 11 belonged to bowlers from Squad 6. Peter Ljung (left) is the third Swede in the top 10 in ninth place with 1372. The lefty was followed by reigning EBT women's ranking champion Nina Flack (right), also of Sweden, who averaged 220.67 and totaled 1372 including 48 pins handicap.

    Flack, who is the best of 18 women in the field, was seeded tenth due to Ljung's higher last game. Tore Torgersen of Norway toppled 1359 pins to leap into 11th place. With 108 players from 18 countries in books, Alessio Maniero of Italy holds the 30th and last place to advance with 1264 and an average of 210.67.

    Qualifying continues on Friday with Squads 7, 8 and 9 scheduled for 1, 5 and 9 p.m. CET.

    2011QAMFOPenLogo2_small.jpg The 5th QubicaAMF Open 2011 is the 7th stop of the 2011 European Bowling Tour and the fourth out of seven EBT "Silver" tournaments this season. The tournament will be held from April 5-10, 2011at 28-lane bowling center Gladiator Arena in Ljubljana, Slovenia and offers total prize fund of 43.400 Euro with 6.000 Euro going to the winner, 3.000 to the runner-up and 2.000 to the third place finisher.

    2011EBT04WendyKok7_small.jpg2011EBT04GeryVerbruggen5_small.jpg Wendy Kok (left), Netherlands, became the first women's champion in the 2010 European Bowling Tour season when she defeated 4-time EBT ranking champion Gery Verbruggen (right), Belgium, in the title match of the 4th edition of the QubicaAMF Open 2010, 435-410. Verbruggen, finished second, won the men's rankings.

    Since the Viborg International in Viborg, Denmark, has been cancelled, the 2011 European Bowling Tour consists of 21 tour stops in 17 countries including two Platinum, six Gold, seven Silver and six Satellite tournaments.

    The top 50 men and the top 50 women in each event receive ranking points. The winner of a Platinum tournament receives 250 ranking points, the winner of a Gold tournament gets 150, the winner of a Silver tournament such as the QubicaAMF Open earns 100, and the winner of a Satellite tournament gets 50 ranking points.

    The top 16 men and the top 16 women at the end of the 2011 season qualify for the 5th EBT Masters to be held at Dream-Bowl Palace in Unterföhring near Munich, Germany on April 30 and May 1, 2012. The event will become the first EBT Masters to be contested on single lane condition.

    The qualifying of the 5th QubicaAMF Open runs from Tuesday April 4 through Saturday, April 9 with the last qualifying squad 13 scheduled for 9pm. CET. Qualifying will conclude with the one-game Desperado Squad slated for Midnight.

    A total of 40 players will qualify for the finals on Sunday, April 10, including the top 30 players from the overall qualifying standings, the top six players from the combined standings of the first three days (Tuesday through Thursday - Squads 1-6) which are not among the top 30 plus the top 4 players from the Desperado Squad. The top 10 qualifiers will receive two byes, while qualifiers 11-20 will bypass the first round of the finals.

    Players seeded 21-40 after qualifying will bowl 4 games scratch. The top 10 will advance to the second round to bowl another 4 games scratch. The top 10 after the second round will join the top 10 qualifiers in Round 3..

    The top 10 after another four-game block will bowl further four games Round 4 with the pinfall total from Round 3 being carried forward. The top 5 after eight games will advance to a traditional stepladder final.

    The stepladder begins Sunday at 5.30 p.m. CET The finalists will compete against each other in a single-match shootout game, In the opening match, the No. 5 seed takes on No. 4 with the winner taking on No. 3. The winner of that match meets No. 2 for the right to bowl the top-seeded player for the title, the 6.000 Euro top prize and 100 ranking points.

     


    Related Articles


    Hungary's Giorgio Bodis sets the pace in Squads 3 and 4 in Ljubljana, Slovenia
    Austrians dominate first qualifying day at 5th QubicaAMF Open 2011

     


    Qualifying Standings after Squad 6/13