Norwegian shooting star Mads Sandbækken (as always in red, with Tony Fransson, Sweden posted the fourth 300 game of the 2007 Norwegian Open in game #2 of Squad 13 Friday en route to shoot into second place in the overall qualifying standings with 1470 six-game total and an average of 245.00.

Sandbækken (pictured left), who won the 2006 World Youth Championships Masters as well as the 2007 adult European Championships Masters, became the first non-Swedish bowler to accomplish the feat.

Stefan Nilsson, Martin Larsen and Nina Flack, all from Sweden, rolled the first three perfectos.

Ghislaine van der Tol (right), Netherlands, brought the number of 300 games to five, when she got twelve strikes in game #5. Van der Tol, who has won two EBT titles this season in Malta and San Marino, felled 1407 pins and added 48 handicap, a standard on the European Bowling Tour for female bowlers, to leap into fifth place with 1455.

Robert Andersson, Sweden, continued to lead with 1497 pinfall total and an average of 249.50. First week leader Ingunn Øien is the top-ranked woman in third place with 1466, with Svein Åke Ek, both Norway in fourth, 1457.

Five more players, three from Norway and two from Sweden, reached the 1400-plateau in Squad 13 and brought the total number of 1400-series to 21: 9th Mikael Kanold, Sweden, 144; 10th Vidar Longva, Norway, 1440; 11th Tony Fransson, Sweden, 1439; 16th Arne Egil Olsen, 1419 and 21st Glenn Morten Pedersen, both Norway, 1402.

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 Friday, Oct. 5, with Squads 14 at 9.00 p.m. and concludes on Saturday, October 6 with Squads 15-18 scheduled for 8 a.m., noon, 4.00 and 8 p.m. local time. (GMT +1). The ultimate one-game Desperado Squad is scheduled for 11.30 p.m..

The top 40 players from the qualifying (cut is now 1338) 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 (cut: 1434), while players ranked 13-24 (cut: 1386) 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.