Jähi, Palermaa cruise to the Doubles title

23 August, 2016

Championships

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In a title match between the two top-seeded doubles, No. 1 Joonas Jähi and Osku Palermaa of Finland defeated No. 2 Jesper Agerbo and Jimmy Mortensen of Denmark, 432-380, to win the gold medal in doubles at the 2016 Men’s European Championships Tuesday afternoon at Bowling Stones bowling center in Brussels, Belgium.

The Finns, who earned the earned the No. 1 seed with record 2943 six-game total and an average of 245.25, both rolled 216 games.

Mortensen (left) had 201 while defending doubles champion Agerbo (with Frederik Øhrgaard), who won gold in Singles two days ago and leads in all-events with an average of 250.83, managed only 170.

In the semi-finals, Jähi (267) carried his teammate Palermaa (196) to a 463-385 victory over fourth-seeded Marco Baade and Oliver Morig of Germany.

Baade’s and Morig’s compatriots, Pascal Winternheimer and Tobias Börding, fell to the Danes in the other semi-final, 448-423. From left, Morig, Baade, Winternheimer and Börding.

The Germans shared the bronze medal, Baade and Börding for the second consecutive Championships. Mortensen and Agerbo got silver and won the second medal for Denmark in as many events. Jähi and Palermaa, who will be heading into trios and teams as the defending champions, captured the first medal for Finland in this Championships.

At the 2015 MEC in Aalborg, the host country Denmark led the medal tally with three gold and two bronze medals with Finland in second place with two gold, one silver and one bronze.

Action shifts to the trios preliminaries which will be split into two blocks of three games. Squad 1 bowls at 9 a.m. with squads 2 and 3 to follow at 12.45 and 4.30 p.m. CEST.

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.

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 Doubles – Medal Round

Championship Round:
1. Finland (Joonas Jähi, Osku Palermaa), 895 (2 games)
2. Denmark (Jimmy Mortensen, Jesper Agerbo), 828 (2 games)
3. Germany (Pascal Winternheimer, Tobias Börding), 423 (1 game) and
Germany (Oliver Morig, Marco Baade), 385 (1 game)

Playoff Results:
Semifinal Match 1: No. 1 Jähi (267)/Palermaa (196) def.
No. 4 Morig (189)/Baade (196), 463-385
Semifinal Match 2: No. 2 Mortensen (243)/Agerbo (205) def.
No. 3 Winternheimer (215)/Börding (208), 448-423
Championship Match: Jähi (216)/Palermaa (216) def.
Mortensen (201)/Agerbo (170), 432-380.

Herbert Bickel