Norway leads team event at Men's Worlds at half way point

Team Norway (pictured left with coach Mats Karlsson) leads the five-player team event in the Men's World Championships 2008 after the first 3-game block on the very tough long oil pattern at SF Strike Bowl Ngamwongwan in Nonthaburi, Bangkok, Thailand.

The Norwegians felled 3198 pins in the morning squad, an average of 213.20, to lead the field of 54 teams into the final day of the preliminaries on Wednesday. Former PBA exempt bowler Tore Torgersen led the team and the entire squad with 692. Per Kristian Eide had 662, Glenn Morten Pedersen 655, Petter Hansen 597 and Mads Sandbækken 592.

Torgersen jumped from 20th to tied second place in all Events after 15 of 24 games. The Norwegian and Mahmood Ahmad Al Attar both have felled 3295 pins. Alejandro Cruz, Mexico, remained in the lead with 3357 or an average of 223.80.

Finland with Petri Mannonen, Petteri Salonen, Pasi Uotila, Mika Koivuniemi and Osku Palermaa sits in second place with 3046. England with Dominic Barrett, Paul Moor, Mike Quarry, Darren Cundy and Stuart Williams is third with 3027.

Team USA (pictured left) and Korea, are tied for fourth at 3010. The line-up of the Americans for the long-oil pattern was Walter Ray Williams Jr., Bill Hoffman, Patrick Allen, Chris Barnes and Tommy Jones.

2007-08 PBA Rookie of the Year, Rhino Page, one of the hottest players on the PBA Tour, bowled in one of the Make Up Teams for his All Events total and fell from second to seventh behind a 533 series.

The lefty, the best Team USA player on short oil, will be back on the team for the second block on Wednesday. He will replace 44-time PBA champion Williams, who had not a good look at all on the short pattern.

None of the 26 teams in Squad 2 reached the 3,000 mark (200 average) Tuesday afternoon.

The Philippines (right) led the way with 2995 (199.67), good for sixth place in the overall standings. Paulo Valdez led the team with 630, followed by 2-time Asian champion Chester King (623), defending MWC Masters champion Biboy Rivera (600), Asian champion in Doubles (with King) Raoul Miranda (593 and Frederick Ong (549).

Germany (left) finished mere 10 behind with 2985 or an average of 199.00. Newcomer David Canady (third from right) led his team and the squad with 679 and was followed by Marco Baade (607), Jens Nickel (602), Tobias Gäbler (574) and Achim Grabowski (523). Grabowski finished second in the 2006 MWC Masters after Rivera fired a 300 game in the decisive fifth game for a 3-2 victory in the best-of-three games format.

The Germans ended the day in 8th place trailing seventh-placed China (score correction to 2987) by mere two pins.

Colombia was another six pins behind Germany to overtake the ninth place in the overall standings with 2979. David Rivera and Manuel Otalora carried the team with 658 and 611. Jorge Otalora contributed 582 while long-time national team members Jaime Monroy and Andres Gomez had 599 and 529.

599 is a magic number for Monroy and Gomez and exactly their record score for one game in Doubles in the 1999 World Championships when Monroy had a 299 and Gomez a perfecto.

Rounding out the top 10 is multiple Team World Champion Sweden with 2964.

All teams will return on Wednesday for the second block on short oil. Squad 2 will bowl at 9 a.m. with Squad 1 following at 2 p.m.

The top four teams after the preliminaries advance to the semifinals scheduled for Wednesday 7.00 p.m. The No. 1 seed will meet No. 4 and No. 2 takes on No. 3 in one-game matches with the winners meeting in the one-game title match immediately following. The semifinal losers will each receive bronze medals.

Both semifinals and the title match will be broadcasted live on national TV.