Valgeir Gudbjartsson
The Reykjavík International Games bowling tournament was once again held in Reykjavík, Iceland from the 20th of January until the 28th of January in the Keiluhöllin Egilshöll sports complex, this year for the first time a part of the european tour. Total of 302 entries and re-entries were bowled during the duration of the tournament by 87 players, where of 26 were women.
After four final steps it came down to a four player carousel final on live tv. That means that all four players played one game, low score eliminated. The last three players play another game from scratch and again the low score is eliminated, then the final two players play one more game from scratch were the high score is the champion.
In the first game it was Gústaf Smári Björnsson, Iceland that was eliminated with the score of 189, Matej Vojkovsky, Czech Republic was next with 215, second was Gunnar Þór Ásgeirsson, Iceland with 221 and the leader in game one was Kenzo Bogaerts, Belgium with the score of 267.
In the second game it was Vojkovsky that was eliminated with the score of 197, Ásgeirsson was next with the score of 201 and again leading was Bogaerts with the score of 247.
Then it all came down to the final game. Again it was Bogaerts that was in control and he ended up as the winner with the score of 222 to Ásgeirsson‘s 196. This was Kenzo Bogaerts‘ first ever EBT title, congratulations Kenzo.
Olivia Clara Steinunn Lindén, Iceland was the highest ranked woman for the first time, she finished in 16th place.
The complete ranking after the third tournament can be seen here (WIll be updated 01-02-2024 in the morning): Women | Men
EBT Ranking is being moved to a new dynamic viewing system Tuesday 30-01-2024 and Wednesday 31-01-2024.
The world-renowned Brunswick Ballmaster Open was conducted for the 54th time in the beautiful Tali Bowling Centre in Helsinki, Finland from the 4th of January until the 14th of January. Total of 1099 entries and re-entries were bowled during the duration of the tournament by 506 players, where of 103 were women.
After three final steps it came down to two semi final matches.
First it was Luukas Väänänen from Finland against Jesse Kallio also from Finland for a spot in the final. Kallio defeated Väänänen with the score of 218 against 214.
In the second semi final it was James Blomgren from Sweden against Niko Oksanen from Finland for the second final spot. Oksanen defeated Blomgren with the score of 204 against 181.
In the all Finish final it was Kallio that managed to come out on top with the score of 222 against Oksanen‘s score of 212. This was Kallio‘s first european tour title, congratulations Jesse Kallio.
The highest ranked woman in the tournament was Cherie Tan from Singapore who finished in 11th place.
The complete ranking after the first tournament can be seen here: Women | Men
The Motiv AIK International Tournament 2024 was once again conducted in the great Bowl-O-Rama bowling centre in Stockholm and it was the first EBT stop of the 2024 season. It was conducted from the 26th of December 2023 until the 7th of January 2024. Total of 879 entries and re-entries were bowled during the duration of the tournament by 335 players, where of 68 were women.
After three final steps it came down to a three person stepladder final.
In the first match it was Daphne Tan from Singapore against Alex Joki from Sweden. Joki was the winner with the score 279 against Tan‘s 209.
In the final match it was again Alex Joki but this time he faced off against Luukas Väänänen from Finland who had been a standout leader throughout the day. But in the final it was all Joki who followed up the 279 with a 277 against Väänänen‘s 242.
This was Joki‘s first EBT title, congratulations Alex.
The highest ranked woman was as earlier mentioned Daphne Tan of Singapore who finished 3rd in the tournament.
The complete ranking after the first tournament can be seen here: Women | Men
After three final steps it was all down to 4 players, Joakim West from Sweden, Kevin Melin from Sweden, Mathias Otting from Norway and Jesper Svensson from Sweden.
They all played one game and the lowest score was eliminated, after the first game it was Mathias Otting that was eliminated with the score of 178 and a 4th place finish for Mathias.
In the next game, Kevin Melin had the low score of 208 and therefore a 3rd place finish for Kevin.
That meant that in the finals it was Jesper Svensson against Joakim West. In the end it was a win for Jesper with the score of 207 against Joakim‘s 165. This was Jesper‘s 2nd win on the tour this season and his 10th overall title. Congratulations Jesper!
The highest ranked woman in the tournament was Nora Johansson from Sweden, who finished in 8th place overall.
After the tournament the top 8 in the EBT rankings have been confirmed. Emma Halttunen from Sweden was the only change in the women‘s top 8 list.
In the men‘s rankings there were also some changes, with his win in Mora, Jesper Svensson managed to take the final spot in the top 8 with less than 10 points more than Robin Ilhammar from Sweden
The complete ranking can be seen here: Women | Men
Now the EBT2024 will start in about weeks time, first tournament on the tour, The MOTIV AIK Intl. Tournament will start in Stockholm, SE on the 26 December 2023!
At the last EBF Presdium meeting following EBF Championships hostings were confirmed:
European Youth Championships 2025 will be held in Samsun, Turkey during 12-21 April 2025
European Youth Championships 2026 will be held in Berlin, Germany during 28 March to 6 April 2026
European Women Championships 2026 will be held in Odense, Denmark during 10-21 June 2026
European Championship of Champions 2026 will be held in Ankara, Turkey during 20-27 October 2026
ECC2023 has come to an end, first time ever including Mix doubles which was a success:
Final standing in the mix doubles:
Gold England (Verity Crawley and Hadley Morgan)
Silver Greece (Georgia Sagona and Evangelos Krizinis)
Bronze Czech Republic (Petra Otec Hanzlova and Ondrej Prekop)
In the traditional single competition then we saw on the women side following:
Roosa Lunden, FIN vs Nadien Meier, GER – Nadine winning 2-0 and
Verity Crawley, ENG vs Georgia Sagona, GRE – Verity winning 2-1
And in the final:
Verity Crawley, ENG vs Nadine Meier, GER – Verity winning 2-1 and earning Gold Medal
On the men’s side we had following in the semifinals:
Mats Maggi, BEL vs Tomas Kähkö, FIN – Tomas winning 2-0 and
Hadley Morgan, ENG vs Carl Eklund, SWE – Carl winnig 2-0
And in the final:
Carl Eklund, SWE vs Tomas Käyhkö, FIN – Tomas winning 2-1 and earning Gold Medal
All results at: https://bowlingresults.info/ecc/2023/
The EBF Congress 2023 was held in Hotel Am Borsigurm, in Berlin, Germany on the 22 October 2023
Delegates from 23 EBF federations were present.
During the presentation of the Annual Report for 2021-2022 EBF Presidium introduced Gender Equality committe that was set up in 2021 and has been working on Gender Quality issues, EBF Presidium also introduced 2 new committees that should be set up during the next very few months; Hall of Fame/awards committee and Athletes committe.
EBF Tournament approval fees will be raised from 100 EUR to 200 EUR (had not been changed since 2015)
The articles for Awards were moved from the contitution, to (new) chapter 9 within the EBF rules, as it is expected to have some new awards presented in 2024.
Grand Seniors (+65) will get their EBF championships – was sent to the Tournament committee to present to Presidium a proposal to implement the new category into the Championship programs.
A Working Group will be established to look into the EBF constitution and propose amendments to the articles.
Mr Addie Ophelders, was introduced as new Honorary EBF President, but he retired earlier in the year due to health issues. Addie had been President of EBF from 1989 or in 34 years.
Mr. Valgeir Gudbjartsson, Iceland was elected President for 2 years.
Mr Marios Nicolaides, Cyprus was elected Vice-President for 4 years
Mr. Marc Beaufays from Belgium was re-elected into the Presidium for 4 years and Mrs Lisa John, England was elected into the Presdium for 4 years.
The 6th Brunswick Open was conducted in Cristal Bowling in Wittelsheim, France from the 26th of September 2023 until the 1st of October 2023. Total of 562 entries and re-entries were bowled during the duration of the tournament by 193 players, where of 41 were women.
After three final steps and a quarter final it was down to two semi final matches.
They played two games, total pinfall. Higher score goes through to the final.
Lukas Jelinek from Czech Republic bested Robin Ilhammar from Sweden with a score of 485 to 431.
In the other semi final match it was Niko Oksanen from Finland that defeated Carl Eklund from Sweden with a score of 492 to 452.
That meant that in the final it was Lukas against Niko. In the final Lukas Jelinek put on a show and started with the front 11 strikes before getting a 7-10 split in the final shot. Before the second game he lead by 105 pins. He added a 256 in the second game and in the end won with a comfortable margin, 554 to Niko‘s 454. This is Lukas Jelinek‘s first ever EBT title! Congratulations to Lukas.
The highest ranked woman in the tournament was Nora Johansson from Sweden, who finished in 5th place after being defeated by Lukas in a roll-off in the quarter finals. With this result she moved into 2nd place in the rankings. Essi Pakarinen however finished 2nd in the women‘s rankings in France and with the 2nd place she has secured the win in the women‘s rankings in 2023. See full women ranking here
There were some changes to the top 8 after the tournament. Lukas Jelinek jumps from 14th up to 4th and Arnar David Jonsson moves into 7th.
The Dimitris Karetsos Tournament was conducted in the Cosmos Bowling Centre in Athens, Greece from the 14th of September 2023 until the 24th of September 2023. Total of 386 entries and re-entries were bowled during the duration of the tournament by 146 players, where of 25 were women.
After four final steps a 4 man stepladder final was confirmed.
In the first game in the stepladder, Dimitrios Lykiardopoulos from Greece defeated Ioannis Stathatos also from Greece with the score 202-191.
In the second game Dimitrios unfortunately lost against Adreas Ktoris of Cyprus, 232-224.
That meant that in the final match for the title it was Adreas Ktoris of Cyprus against Callum Borck from Australia. The winner of the match and getting his first EBT title was Adreas Ktoris but he shot 216 against Borck‘s 177.
The highest ranked woman in the tournament was Mariana Meteksinova from Bulgaria, who finished in 35th place in the tournament.
There were no changes to the top 8 in the EBT rankings after the tournament in Greece.
Norwegian Open 2023 by Storm was conducted Hønefoss Bowlingsenter from the 9th of September 2023 until the 17th of September 2023. Total of 439 entries and re-entries were bowled during the duration of the tournament by 174 total players, where of 30 were women.
After four final steps the 8 best players moved on to bowl another 3 games for the title, where the scores were carried forward. The scores were as following:
Runar Granum, Norway with 717
William Svensson, Sweden with 709
Magnus Haram Mittet, Norway with 703
Felix Bergman, Sweden with 681
James Blomgren, Sweden with 672
Mathias Danielsen Otting, Norway with 652
Kim Bolleby, Sweden with 647
Benjamin Jonsson, Sweden with 627
After an exciting final 3 games it ended up being a tie between Felix Bergman and James Blomgren both from Sweden which meant that they had to bowl a 9th and 10th frame roll-off. First they both ended up with 40 in the roll-off which meant another roll-off. There it was James Blomgren that was victorious with a score of 60 vs 39 from Bergman.
This was Blomgren‘s third win in the Norwegian Open but he also won in 2013 and 2019 which means he now has three titles on the European Tour.
The highest ranked woman in the tournament was Essi Pakarinen, who finished in 14th place. She now moves 100 points ahead of Anna Andersson, who did not participate in Norway full ranking to be seen here.
Kim Bolleby extended his lead in the men‘s ranking after finishing in 4th place and he now leads Mathias Ankerdal with over 300 points. Niko Oksanen moved into 5th place and William Svensson is now only 2 points outside of the top 8.