Leandersson finally wins AIK Tournament in Stockholm

Eklund, Glendert win Super Six Tour 2009 finals

Tomas Leandersson (pictured left), Sweden, estimates that he has participated about 25 times in the AIK Tournament at Bowl-O-Rama in Stockholm, Sweden. This year, the popular tournament celebrated its 30th anniversary with the finals being held on Jan. 6. For the first time in his illustrious career, Leandersson walked away with the winner's trophy. The event was also the first stop of the Swedish Super Six Tour 2010.

It was about high time after two runner-up finishes in the past two years. The multiple world and European champion finished second to Mattias Olsson in 2009 and lost in the semis against Martin Larsen in 2008.

"This time I found the strike pocket in the stepladder immediately, That is what it is all about in a stepladder format, to quickly find your game on both lanes", said Tomas after defeating his arch rival, Norwegian standout Tore Torgersen, in the title match.

In the opening match of the 4-player stepladder final, the best woman of the tournament, Gärda Lind defeated Ivan Ljungholm, 232-198, to meet second-seeded Leandersson in the semifinal.

Leandersson cruised to victory, 235-187, to set up a championship match with Torgersen. The No. 1 seed never got lined up and Leandersson took a 32-pin mid-game and never looked back winning his first AIK title, 215-193.

L-R Torgersen, Leandersson, Lind and Ljunghol. Photos: Jonas Brändström/Swebowl

For the first time on the Super Six Tour, a new lane pattern was introduced, the WTBA "Montreal", a medium oil pattern. According to Super Six officials the tour intends to use WTBA lane patterns on all stops in 2010.

Top 8 with earnings:
1. Tomas Leandersson, Sweden, 40 000 SEK
2. Tore Torgersen, Norway, 25 000 SEK
3. Gärda Lind, Sweden, 15 000 SEK
4. Ivan Ljungholm, Sweden, 10 000 SEK
5. Martin Larsen, Sweden, 8 000 SEK
6. Robert Andersson, Sweden, 8 000 SEK
7. Martin Paulsson, Sweden, 8 000 SEK
8. Perttu Jussila, Finland, 8 000 SEK

After the finals of the AIK Tournament, the finals of the Super Six Tour 2009 were conducted using the traditional shoot-out format. Six players each were qualified for the Super Star and the VBS Ladies Tour finals. Each player could get maximum nine strikes.

Swedish International Malin Glendert (pictured left) won the VBS Ladies Tour shoot-out for the third straight year. Both Glendert and Victoria Johansson had seven strikes after nine frames. In the next frame, Victoria missed and Glendert extended her winning streak with a Brooklyn strike.

The Super Star final also went into overtime as Swedish national team members Dennis Eklund (pictured right) and Martin Larsen were deadlocked at seven strikes each after nine rounds. When Larsen failed to strike in the first extra frame, Eklund took full advantage and sealed the victory with a perfect strike.

Glendert and Eklund each pocketed 40.000 SEK or approx. 3.925 Euro for the victory.

Report by Hans Karlsson.