Petri Mannonen of Finland found the lanes of Olympia Bowling here in Helsingborg very much to his liking this afternoon. He led at the halfway stage of the six-game qualifier with the highest three-game score of 752 and the high game so far of 289. But he has fellow countryman Sami Konsteri on his tail, just seven pins off the pace, and another Finn, PBA pro bowler Mika Koivuniemi another 20 pins back.

When the dust settled at the end of the squad it was Koivuniemi (pictured) in front and the new tournament leader as his six-game series of 1,516 is the first to break the 1,500-barrier. When asked what he had for lunch to bring out this amazing strikefest, he replied, with a laugh, "I did well because I took yesterday off. I've been bowling for seven straight days in a row and needed a break."

 Koivuniemi has been on the American Pro Bowlers Tour for the past four years and will be flying back to America on Monday for the PBA Regional Tournaments and then the main Tour in October. He is. of course, very worried about the current power cut in the eastern states and his house in Detroit has had no electricity for the past two days. "I'm looking at facing a big bill for the loss of food in the freezer," he said.

The Finn's amazing performance today, which included a perfecto in the fourth game, the fourth of this tournament, showed  Koivuniemi's well-honed skills. "I bowled fairly well on the first pair, but only hit a 222 and 227, so I changed balls on the second pair for a 276 and 300," he said. "I was getting a good line from the bowlers on the lanes with me and was playing straight and hard. I made a couple of bad shots in the last game, but I've still made the final, which was my goal."

Currently, there is a nice mix of ten nations represented in the qualifying positions, which cooks up a nice recipe for some interesting bowling over the final two days, where we will see the introduction of a very unique format. But more of that tomorrow.

The cut to 44th place, estimated earlier in the week to be around 1,300, has now crept up to 1,314 and there are still three more qualifying squads to roll. There are a lot of worried looking faces on the players just above that region right now!
                                                                                                                                    Keith Hale, Helsingborg

OVERALL STANDINGS AFTER SQUAD 8:

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