Norwegian U23 international Svein Åke Ek moved into ninth place in the qualifying for the Norwegian Open finals during the sixth of 18 squads Tuesday at Veitvet Bowling Center in Oslo.

Eleven local bowlers and Team Norway junior Simen Jensen from Vågan, which is about 2000 kilometers or 1243 miles north of Oslo, brought the total number of players after one-third of the qualifying to 97.

Ek (pictured left), the 2007 European Youth Championships Masters runner-up, played in his own league and outaveraged his nearest competitor in Squad 6, Frode Jørgen Aaneby, by more than 23 pins. After a solid 193 in the opening game, Ek rolled games of 226, 231, 238, 224 and 258 for 1370 six-game total and an average of 228.33.

For the fourth consecutive day, Ingunn Øien (right), all from Norway, remained atop the leaderboard with the1466 pinfall total, an average of 236.33, she posted in the first squad last Saturday.

The Norwegian Open 2007 is the 17th stop of the 2007 European Bowling Tour and one of the Tour's Challenger events. The tournament offers total prize money of 351.000 Norwegian Kronor, approximately 65,250 U.S. Dollar or 45.715 Euro. The winner will receive the 60.000 NOK top prize ($11,150/€7.815).

Qualifying continues on Wednesday, Oct. 3, with Squad 7 and runs through Saturday, October 6 with the final Squad 18 scheduled for 8 p.m. local time. (GMT +1). Qualifying will conclude with the one-game Desperado Squad around Midnight.

The top 40 players from the qualifying will automatically advance to the finals. They will be joined by the top four players from the first weekend (combined standings of squads 1-4) not among the top 40 and the top 4 from the Desperado Squad.

The top 12 earn two byes, while players ranked 13-24 will bypass the first round. The first three rounds of the final consist of four games from scratch with half of the field advancing to the next round.

Once the field is cut to the top 12, players bowl two games from scratch to cut to the top 8, then the top four, who advance to the semi-finals (No. 1 vs. No. 4, No. 2 vs. No. 3). The winners of these one-game matches will bowl for the title and the 60.000 NOK top prize.

Bowlingdigital will cover the event live from Oslo commencing Friday, October 5 all the way through to the finals on Sunday, October 7.