NOW IT'S ALL GREEK
Dimitrios Karetsos of Greece (pictured) proved to be a formidable foe on the lanes of the luxurious lanes of Rollhouse Bowling in Ankara as he powered into pole position with a final four of this morning's six-game block between 225 and 254. The 44-year-old right-hander, a pro shop operator in Athens, opening with lackluster games of 162 and 191, then went into overdrive to hit 254, 246, 246 and closed with 225 for an outstanding score of 1,324 to bring his overall score at the halfway stage of qualifying to 2,532.
"After the two low opening games, I changed bowling balls and switched from an outside to a tighter line around board 15," he explained. "That gave me a lot better carry."
Today's squad was the men's first experience of the long oil pattern, having bowled the short oil yesterday. "This alternate short and long oil pattern is exciting for the bowlers," added Karetsos, "and it is fine for the technical players, but the downside is that you have to carry a lot of bowling balls. I've been playing for over 25 years now, so have a lot of experience of varying conditions and I'm sure that I will be able to stay on top of my game and be in the top eight on Saturday."
A fine series of 1,255 kept Turkish bowler Habib Dogan in the leading octet, currently in third position and just 85 pins off the pace, which is proving to be a great asset with the event's publicity around Turkey.
The high game record was beaten yet again in this morning's squad as San Marino's Righi Domenico set a new target of 279, hitting that in his opening game of the day, but four other sub-par games kept him in sixth place overall.
The strongest challenge is coming from Finland's veteran Olli Tianinen, at 47 one of the most senior players. He needed to win the last game with 26 pins more than Karetsos, but fell eight short on the last hurdle.
The men's squad will return to the lanes at five this evening for their second block on the short oil and will complete thier 24 qualifying games on Friday afternoon.

MEN'S QUALIFYING, SECOND 6 OF 24 GAMES, LONG OIL:
Thursday, Sept. 2 - 09:00