FINAL QUALIFYING DAY
Now we're into the home straight with the
last four qualifying squads and the dreaded
Desperado squad on the menu for today. Squad
10, the red-eye 08:00 group this morning, got
off to a good start with 44 managing to get the
 sleep
out of their eyes and making the journey over
the bridge to the Lovvang Bowl. Although none
managed to break into the 1400s, there were some
good scores and through the last game it came
down to a tussle between Swedish national team
coach Tomas Leandersson and Leonidas Maragkos
from Greece. It was honors to Greece with final
score of 1395 to Leandersson's 1366. Maragkos,
38, a car engineer from Athens (pictured), is
happy to be up among the top echelon in his
second visit to the Brunswick Aalborg
International. The last time he failed to make
the cut with 1199, so has high hopes of getting
into the top prize money this time.
"The dual lane condition is a challenge," he
remarked. "It means you have to be more focused
and extremely accurate. I like it and I would
like to see this format used in a lot more
tournaments. The only problem is how to carry
all the bowling balls you need. I managed to
bring four with me buyt maybe could have done
with a couple more."
Squad 11:
Quite an exciting second squad of the day, to
say the least. The main focus was on the battle
 between
Vincent Cayez of France (pictured) and Finland's
Osku Palermaa as they went into the final game
leading the squad and were destined to meet on
the same pair of lanes for the final game.
Cayez mirrored Palermaa's scores through the
first six frames and as the Finn was looking to
overcome a 51 pin deficit it became obvious that
the Frenchman would maintain the advantage. He
did: Cayez 225, Palermaa 227. So when Cayez's
total pinfall of 1420 was posted it looked as
though he had clinched second place overall,
nine pins behind leader Michael Fagan of the
United States. However, away on the other side
of this 30-lane house, Martin Larsen, of the
Swedish national team, had a final game of 290
and that jumped the score from Cayez to take
second place in the overall standings, just one
pin behind Fagan, so the American still stands a
good chance of clinching the €1,000 bonus for
being the top qualifier. But there are still two
squads to bowl.
 It
looked as though Larsen (pictured) was going to
bowl again on the 16:00 squad where the Swedish
national team has a block booking. "We were all
going to bowl together but since I hurt my
finger on the first day I am not going to bowl
with the squad," he explained. "I actually
missed two single pins in my six games earlier,
so it is easy to see where the blame lies for
not taking over the lead, but I didn't know I
was going to shoot 290 when I needed it.
"I don't really like this dual lane condition
because it makes things tough for the guys
traveling with bowling balls and it is mainly
still the same people at the top. No, I don't
like it very much."
Squad 12:
Come the final game of this, the penultimate,
squad and around half a dozen players were in a
position to really challenge the 1429 set by PBA
pro bowler Michael Fagan yesterday. The one with
the best chance was Sweden's Peter Ljung, the
current leader in the European rankings and
recent champion of the Brunswick Euro Challenge
in France. He was on 1185 after the fifth game
but
 slumped
to a 169 when he moved to lanes 29-30, the pair
on which team-mate Tomas Leandersson had shot
290 at the end of the previous squad. That
dropped him to seventh place on this squad.
The laurels went to another Swede, Peter
Hellstrom, 33, (pictured) who took over the
baton with a 256 in the final game to garner
1434 over the six-game stint to set a new target
on the leader board for those lucky enough to
get a spot on the final squad.
"I'm hoping to collect that
thousand euros for being top qualifier,"
commented Hellstrom, "but there is still one
more squad to bowl tonight." It was his
fourth entry into this year's BAI. "I knew I
had to bowl better on this squad," he added.
"I had to make faster adjustments. Luckily,
I only had to move a couple of boards on the
short oil pattern as my break point became
earlier on some lanes. The dual lane
condition is my thing!"
Another brave soul who managed to hit 1400 was
Glenn Morten Pedersen of Denmark, now currently
in that group of twelve at the top of the table
who get a bye into the second round of the final
tomorrow.
Squad 13:
Fairy tales can come true
for the young at heart, proved by the
performance of young Dutch
 star
Nicole Sanders (pictured) who came out on top of
the final qualifying squad tonight with a 1380
six-game total, an amount which should have been
even better but for a 198 in the fourth game and
a finishing 202. One of the top ranked European
Tour bowlers, Sanders has an abundance of talent
and really showed her mettle this evening,
coming home 42 points ahead of second placed
Marie Santonen of Finland.
Earlier, sitting on 1340, Sanders was not too
sure that she would qualify for the final
stages, so took the chance of a re-entry into
the final squad. Now she's pleased she took that
decision.
Peter Hellstrom of Sweden is the lucky guy who
qualified in first place and therefore will pick
up a handy €1,000 for that achievement.
The top 44 will advance to the final stages
which commence at 08:00 on Sunday.
The entry total of 221 bowlers equals the
highest entry set in 2002, but the total of
entries including re-entries sets a new record.
FINAL QUALIFYING
STANDINGS (With Desperado squad results still to
come):
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