TURKEY HOSTS THE TENPIN SPECTACLE

Athletes representing 36 nations have descended upon the luxurious Roll House Bowling Center in Ankara (pictured) for the European Cup Individuals Championships (ECI), European tenpin bowling’s most prestigious singles event.

Competition is taking place at the Bilkent center through this week, culminating in an exciting Final on Saturday afternoon.

The talented field of individual national champions has the current favorites in the men’s division as Richard Hood of England, Kai Gunther of Germany and Belgium’s Ives van Eycken, to name just three. The ladies’ will be looking at defending champion Heta-Meija Allen of Finland to complete the double, but Bigi Manico of Switzerland and eleven-time French champion Isabelle Saldjian will do their best to spoil her chances.

Portugal's duo, Paulo Palhares and Katia Abrao, have the honor of being their nation's first representatives in ETBF Championship competition.

Turkey’s Habib Dogan (right), 35, from Konya, and Sevcan Kilci, 35, (left) from Istanbul, are both confident of doing well against such formidable opposition. “I am going to learn as much as I can from playing with these top bowlers,” said Kilci, who has represented Turkey twice in the Mediterranean Cup and also played in the ECI in Vienna, Austria last year.

Dogan added, “I feel confident that I am going to win a medal, but the color remains to be seen. I am looking forward to playing against Van Eyken of Belgium. I think that he is going to be the man to beat.” Dogan has 14 years bowling experience to achieve his ambition to be in the limelight at the final medal ceremony, competing in many top events and has won gold and bronze medals in the Mediterranean Cup.

The original entry of 38 nations dropped back to 36 as Russia cancelled their entry and the sad news that the mother of Northern Ireland's Donna Mount had died, meant that she and fellow participant Kevin Horton had to return home.

Skills of the players will be tested as they play 24 qualifying games, half on a short oil condition, the others on a long oil pattern. The top eight men and women will then progress to the best-of-three game knockout rounds to decide the ultimate champions.

LIST OF PLAYERS:

** Denotes ladies' defending champion. 2003 men's champion, Anders Ohman of Sweden joined the PBA and is therefore ineligible to compete in this event. 

For further information, contact Keith Hale: keithhale679@aol.com