Denmark escapes a couple close calls to win gold in Trios

25 August, 2016

Championships

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Jesper Agerbo, Carsten Warming Hansen and Thomas Larsen Denmark defeated Oliver Morig, Tobias Börding and Pascal Winternheimer of Germany, 687-651, to win the gold medal in trios in the Men’s European Championships Thursday evening at Bowling Stones bowling center in Brussels, Belgium.

It was the second gold medal for Denmark and Agerbo, who started the Championships with victory in Singles and added a silver medal in doubles with Jimmy Mortensen. Pictured above from left, Agerbo, Hansen and Larsen.

The Danes barely reached the medal round defeating Finland‘s Osku Palermaa, Joonas Jähi and Juhani Tonteri in a 9th and 10th frame roll-off for fourth place, 158-138, after a 3968 to 3968 tie in the preliminaries.

In the semi-finals, Hansen and Larsen, the reigning world champions in trios, and Agerbo defeated top-seeded Norway with Tore Torgersen, Oyvin Kulseng and Glenn Morten Pedersen (right, l-r) by a whisker, 615-614, to advance to the gold medal match for the third time in as many events.

In the other match, Morig, Börding and Winternheimer (left, l-r), seeded second, flew past Sweden with Markus Jansson, Pontus Andersson and Peter Hellström (right, l-r), 710-592.

Germany received the silver medal, while Norway and Sweden got bronze.

Action shifts to the prestigious five-player team competition, which will all decide the medals in all-events and the top 24 players for the masters competition, which will conclude the Championships.

The 2016 Men’s European Championships will be held from August 17-28 at Bowling Stones, a 36-lane QubicaAMF-equipped bowling center in Brussels, Belgium. The nine-day competition started on Saturday, August 20, and culminates with the masters finals on Sunday, August 28.

Record 218 athletes from 37 European Tenpin Bowling Federation (ETBF) member federations – Austria, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Wales and the host country Belgium – participate in the event.

Each team consists of maximum six players, who compete for gold, silver and bronze medals in singles, doubles, trios, five-player teams, all-events and masters.

Singles, doubles, trios and team events features six games preliminaries with the top 4 advancing to the playoffs in one-game format, seeded 1 to 4 according to their position in the prelims. No. 1 bowls No. 4 and No. 2 takes on No. 3. The winners bowl for gold and silver and the losers share the bronze medals.

The top three players with the highest 24-game total (combined scores in the singles, doubles and team preliminaries) receive the medals in all-events.

The top 24 in all-events advance to single-elimination masters match play in best-of-three games format. The top 8 receive one bye.

In each round, the highest seeded player bowls the lowest seeded player, the second-highest seeded player bowls the second-lowest seeded player, and so on. Winners advance and losers will be eliminated. The remaining two players bowl for gold and silver and the losers of the semifinals share the bronze medals.

The 2016 Men’s European Championships serve as the qualifying event for male bowlers competing in the X World Games 2017 in Wroclaw, Poland. The top 5 countries with the two highest positioned players in All-Events qualify for the World Games. The bowling competition will be held July 20-24 at Sky Bowling.

The Championships also serve as the qualifier for the 2017 World Championships for men and women, to be held at Cozmo Bowling Center in Salmiya, Kuwait Dec. 4-18. The top 12 men’s teams in Brussels will qualify for the combined World Championships.

Photos courtesy of Gisela Göbel.

Norway shoots big last game to win Trios preliminaries
Germany, Sweden, Finland crack top 4 in trios
Danish trio sets the pace as Squad 2 has completed preliminaries
Belgium leads after Day 1 in Trios preliminaries
Belgium takes over lead in Doubles after Squad2/3
Italy sets the tone in Squad 1 Trios after three games
Jähi, Palermaa cruise to the Doubles title
Finland, Denmark, Germany (2) to bowl for MEC Doubles title
Finns Palermaa, Jähi shoot into Doubles lead
Agerbo, Mortensen continue to lead Doubles preliminaries
Agerbo, Mortensen lead MEC Doubles prelims after Squad1/4
Jesper Agerbo shoots big games to win Singles gold
Jesper Agerbo leads Singles preliminaries after squad 2/4
2016 Men’s European Championships ready to go

2016 MEC Trios – Medal Round

Championship Round:
1. Denmark (Carsten Warming Hansen, Thomas Larsen, Jesper Agerbo, 1302 (2 games)
2. Germany (Tobias Börding, Pascal Winternheimer, Oliver Morig), 1361 (2 games)
3. Norway (Glenn Morten Pedersen, Oyvin Kulseng, Tore Torgersen), 614 (1 game), and
Sweden (Peter Hellström, Pontus Andersson, Markus Jansson), 592 (1 game)

Playoff Results:
Semifinal Match 1:
No. 4 Hansen (211), Larsen (236), Agerbo (168) def.
No. 1 Pedersen (193), Kulseng (199), Torgersen (222), 615-614
Semifinal Match 2:
No. 2 Börding (232), Winternheimer (246), Morig (232) def.
No. 2 Andersson (194), Hellström (187), Jansson (211), 710-592
Championship Match:
Hansen (253), Larsen (198), Agerbo (236) def.
Börding (224), Winternheimer (233), Morig (194), 687-651.

Herbert Bickel