Thomas Larsen shoots 810 series to move to the top of the leaderboard in San Marino

    07/08/11

    2011 European Bowling Tour #11

    Mika Koivuniemi, Adrian Ang achieve perfection; cut for 38th place is 1287 (214.5 ave.)

    2011EBT11ThomasLarsen.jpg2011EBT11AntonioMaddaloni2.jpgThe race for the top 12 and top 38 positions in the qualifying of the 7th Storm San Marino Open heats up at Rose'n Bowl in Serravalle, San Marino. Thomas Larsen (pictured left) of Denmark moved to the top of the leaderboard as total six players from Thursday's squads 12, 13 and 14 cracked the top 12 in the overall qualifying standings, who will earn two byes (top 6) and one bye (places 7-12) for Sunday's finals.

    Larsen, currently the No. 2 in the European Bowling Tour ranking sandwiched between Finns Osku Palermaa and Mika Koivuniemi started Squad 13 Thursday afternoon with solid 224, 214 and 216 before he closed out with an 810 three-game series (279, 255 and 276) to overtake previous leader Antonio Maddaloni (right), Italy, by just three pins.

    Larsen leads the field of 211 players from 17 countries with 1464 total and an average of 244. Maddaloni, who led the qualifying since Squad 2, slipped to second place with 1461 (243.50).

    2011EBT11SyafiqRidhwan.jpg2011EBT11MikaKoivuniemi.jpgSyafiq Ridhwan (left) posted 1417 and was the best of ten Malaysian national team members, who entered the San Marino Open yesterday. Ridhwan had games of 238, 226, 276, 223, 218 and 236, an average of 236.17, to lead Squad 12 en route to jump into third place overall.

    Italian Maurizio Celli slipped from second to fourth place with 1412 and was followed by PBA Player of the Year Koivuniemi (right), who had 1411 in Squad 13. The 9-time PBA champion started his series with 226, 216 and 227 before he rolled the third 300 game of the tournament and finished with 195 and 247.

    Davide Spagnoli, Italy (1399) and Serge Frouvelle (1394) and Thierry Sacco (1390) of France fell three spots to sixth through eighth place.

    2011EBT11StuartWilliams.jpg2011EBT11AdrianAng.jpgFormer World Ranking Masters champion Stuart Williams had six games between 211 and 255 to lead Squad 14 Thursday night with 1386 (213 ave.) and to move into ninth place on the leaderboard. Christian Racpan fell from sixth to tenth place with 1372.

    Rounding out the top 12 were Alex Liew, Malaysia and Alexander Medveditskov, Russia, who were third and fourth in Squad 13 with 1371 and 1370, respectively.

    Another five players in that squad, all from Malaysia, also reached the 1300 mark. World and Asian Games champion Esther Cheah had 1345 including handicap and was followed by Sin Li Jane (1338), Zulmazran Zulkifli (1316), Jacqueline Sijore (1305) and Adrian Ang (1300).

    2011EBT11TommasoRadi.jpg2011EBT11LaurenceGaillard.jpgAng (above right) already had a higher series in Squad 12 which was highlighted by the tournament's second perfecto in the opening game. His 1352 total put him into 16th place overall, just one place behind Tommaso Radi (left), Italy (1356), who had the first 300 game in Squad 2.

    Laurence Gaillard (right), France, is two pins better than Cheah and remained the best of now 27 women in the field with 1347. Eleven women are currently among the top 38 who will survive the first cut.

    With 14 out of 22 qualifying squads completed, San Marino's Ettore Bacchioci holds the last place to advance with 1287 and an average of 214.50.

    Qualifying continues on Friday, July 8 with Squads 15-18 scheduled for 9 a.m., 1, 5 and 9 p.m. CET.

    2011EBT11SanMarinoBanner_small The 7th Storm San Marino Open is the 11th stop of the 2011 European Bowling Tour and the fourth out of six EBT "Gold" tournaments this season.

    The tournament will be held from July 2-10, 2011 at 18-lane Rose'n Bowl in Serravalle, San Marino and offers total prize fund of 60.000 Euro with 10.000 Euro going to the winner, 6.000 to the runner-up and 3.400 each to the third and fourth place finisher.

    2010EBT11ChrisLoschetter_small.jpg2010EBT11NicoleSanders_small.jpg PBA exempt player Chris Loschetter (left), United States, won his first title on the European Bowling Tour when he defeated three-time EBT ranking champion and current leader, Osku Palermaa, Finland, 412-358, to win the sixth Storm San Marino Open. Nicole Sanders (right) of the Netherlands finished in sixth place to win the women's rankings.

    Since the Viborg International in Viborg in 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 such as the San Marino Open gets 150, the winner of a Silver tournament 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 fifth 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.

    Qualifying of the 7th Storm San Marino Open (six-game series, unlimited re-entries) runs from Saturday, July second through Saturday, July 9th with the last qualifying squad 22 scheduled for 9 p.m. CET.

    Qualifying will conclude with the one-game Desperado Squad slated for 12.30 a.m. on Sunday morning. The qualifying winner will be awarded a 1.000 Euro bonus. Women will receive 8 pins handicap each game throughout the entire event, a standard for women on the European Bowling Tour.

    The San Marino Open features a 40 feet Kegel lane conditioning pattern with 24.25ml volume oil total.

    A total of 48 players will advance to the finals on Sunday - the top 38 players from the overall qualifying standings plus the top 3 from the squads conducted on July 2-3, the top 4 from the squads conducted on July 4-6 and the top 3 from the Desperado Squad. The top 6 qualifiers will earn two byes, while qualifiers 7-12 will get one.

    The other 36 players will bowl four games from scratch to cut to the top 18, who will meet qualifiers 7-12 in round two. Those 24 bowl another 4 games from scratch to cut to the top 10, who will join the top six qualifiers in single-elimination match play with the two game total pinfall determining the winner.

    The highest seeded player bowls the lowest seeded, the second-highest seeded players bowls the second-lowest and so on. The field will be cut to 8, 4 then 2, who will bowl for the title and the 10.000 Euro top prize.

     


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    Qualifying Standings after Squad 14/22

     


    300 games (3) - Tommaso Radi, Adrian Ang, Mika Koivuniemi.

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