Defending Singles champion Dennis Eklund (pictured left) from Sweden set the first high light in the qualifying for the 6th Columbia 300 Vienna Open when he rolled the first 300 game of this year's event Friday at Plus Bowling in Vienna, Austria.

To view some photos from the 12th shot, click the image. To view the video clip of the 10th frame, click here.

Eklund started his six-game series with games of 225, 257, 218 and 278 before he achieved perfection in game 5. He closed out his set with 207 to shoot in the lead in Singles with 1485 and an average of 247.50.

Jari Ratia (right) from Finland had two 279 games in the fourth and sixth game to help grab the second place with 1425 (237.50). Previous leader Jason Belmonte, Australia, slipped to third with 1412.

Patricia Luoto (nee Schwarz), who teamed with USBC Queens champion Lynda Barnes (r-l), United States, shot the first 1300-plus series by a woman this year to jump into fourth place with 1386 including 48 pins women's handicap.

Barnes, who won Bowling's Clash of Champion in the U.S. short after the victory in the USBC Queens, landed in 59th place with 1228. Dutch national team member Nicole Sanders currently holds the 52nd and final qualifying post with 1235.

Formula One star Robert Kubica (right) had three 200 games in his set (200, 204, 211) but three games below 160 cost him a better position. He finished his second attempt with 1054, an average of 175.67, to sit in 180th place in the 233 player field.

Dane Frederick Ohrgaaard (left) and Martin Paulsson, Sweden, moved to the top in the leaderboard in the Doubles competition. Paulson led the duo with 1352 and Ohrgaaard added 1328 for 2680 pinfall total or an average of 223.33. They topped previous leaders Jason Walsh and Jason Belmonte by seven pins. The Aussies slipped to second with 2673.

Vincent Cayez and last year's singles runner-up Yoan Alix, France, leaped into third with 2666, with Eklund and team mate Mikael Larsson, Sweden, tied the French with 2666 but had to settle for fourth place due to the lower last game, 376 to 479.

The Vienna Open, the 14th stop of the 2008 European Bowling Tour and one of the Tour's "Major", will be held from Sep. 30 - Oct. 5, in Vienna, Austria.

More than 290 players will compete for total prize money of 65.630 Euro - 55.400 € in Singles and 10.230 € in Doubles. The singles champion will receive the 6.000 € top prize while the doubles winners will split 1.600 €.

In last year's title match, Swede Dennis Eklund (pictured right) defeated Yoan Alix, France, 235-199, en route to win his first EBT title. Tina Hulsch, Germany, won the women's rankings.

Once again the qualifying for the Vienna Open finals is contested as a doubles tournament. Each duo rolls at least one six-game block. Unlimited re-entries with different partners are possible but each player can only cash once with the same partner.

The team with the highest total pinfall including handicap will be declared the winner (no finals will be played). The top 20 doubles will cash.

Stuart Williams, England, and Germany's Tina Hulsch are the defending champions (pictured left).

Qualifying runs from Tuesday through Saturday and ends with the ultimate one-game Desperado Squad on Saturday night Oct. 4 slated for 11.30 pm local time (GMT +1).


A total of 64 players from the qualifying will advance to the finals starting on Sunday, Oct. 5 at 8am:

The top 8 players with the highest six-game qualifying result will earn one bye and will be seeded 1-8 in the match play Round of 32

players positioned 9th to 52nd after qualifying

the six leaders of Squads 1-6 and

the top 6 from the Desperado Squad.

All but the top 8 qualifiers (56 players overall) will bowl 6 games starting from scratch to cut to the top 24. Those 24 will be seeded 9-32 in the match play Round of 32.

The Round of 32, 16 and 8 will feature single-elimination match play in best-of-three games format. The highest seeded player bowls the lowest seeded player, the second-highest seeded player vs. the second-lowest seeded player, etc.

The semifinals (No. 1 vs. No. 4 and No. 2 vs. No. 3) and the championship match will be decided in one game. A major on the European Bowling Tour, the top 50 men and the top 50 women will receive double ranking points.

For more information on the 6th Columbia 300 Vienna Open click here.