The dust of battle has settled over the 14 pristine lanes of Bowling Pedralbes in Barcelona and the 24 qualifiers for Sunday’s final rounds of the 2012 European Women’s Masters have been decided.

Germany’s Birgit Poeppler from Dusseldorf is the top qualifier as her record-breaking 1465, which included the tournament’s only perfect game so far, was way out of reach of the field.

Winner of the final qualifying squad was Mai Ginge Jensen of Aarhus, Denmark, rolling 1405 to clinch third place in the overall standings. She had a high game of 265 to help her on her way to the finals and commented: “I struggled over the first two squads and I couldn’t decide whether to play inside or outside and then I played deeper than most of the ladies here. For the finals tomorrow there’s a lot of good girls playing here, so it will be tough and anything can happen.

Defending champion Clara Guerrero of Colombia is still very much in the hunt. She has the enviable task of defending her title here in Barcelona this week and then travelling to Paris to defend her Brunswick Euro Challenge title next week. “That is a huge task but I am looking forward to it,” she told us.

The remaining competitors face two rounds of four games, starting at 9am on Sunday morning, carrying forward 50 per cent of their qualifying pinfall. At the end of those eight games, four will advance to the semi-finals consisting of best of three game matches. Then the two finalists will fight for the trophy and €3,500 prize, again as best of three games.

QUALIFIERS FOR FINALS:

VIII EUROPEAN WOMEN'S MASTERS PRESIDENT SAMARANCH TROPHY