Jason Belmonte doesn't like it at all if somebody overtakes him. The Australian, who lives in France together with his wife Kimberley (pictured left), lost the qualifying lead in the 6th Columbia 300 Vienna Open during Squad 11 but regained the lead just one squad later.

The two-hander had three games over 260 including back-to-back 260s at the end of his six-game block to become the first player in this year's event, who cracked the 1500-bar.

"Belmo" leads the field of 249 players with 1517 pinfall total and an average of 252.83. Defendimg champion Dennis Eklund (right), Sweden, who posted the first 300-game of the tournament in Squad 11, slipped to second place with 1485.

Trailing Belmonte by 90 pins to move into third place in the overall ´qualifying standings was Chris Vandamme (left).

The Belgium veteran used high games of 279 and 267 for 1427 pinfall total, an average of 237.83.

Rounding out the top 8 who will earn one bye for the finals on Sunday are 4. Jari Ratia, Finland, 1425; 5. Mikael Kanold, Sweden, 1422; 6. Patricia Luoto, Finland, 1386; 7. Robert Andersson (right), Sweden, 1385 and 8. Alexander Rauscher, Austria, 1367.

With 12 out of 17 qualifying squads in the books, Markus Berndt from Sweden is the "man on the bubble" in 52nd place with 1242 pinfall total or an average of 207.00.

Belmonte, who led the Doubles event with compatriot Jason Walsh yesterday, regained the lead when he teamed with Peter Ljung (left), Sweden, in Squad 12.

Ljung added 1222 to Belmonte's 1517 for 2739 six-game total and an average of 228.52.

Swedes Mikael Kanold (1422) and Erik Andersin (right, 1299) were close behind to overtake the second place with 2721 (226.75).

Previous leaders Frederick Ohrgaaard, Denmark, and Martin Paulsson, Sweden, slipped to third with 2680 (223.33).

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.