JEDDAH, 21 April 2008 — The 62-match race to determine the champion and winner of the top prize of $30,000 ends today with the surviving 32 qualifiers to battle in top to bottom match-ups in stage 1 of the final rounds in the 2nd Kingdom International Open Bowling Tournament at Universal Bowling Center here.
After the conclusion last night of the four stages the field will be cut by half to 16 for the remaining six stages, where under the elimination process, the losers still have a chance to progress if they win in the repechage.
The bowler to advance as the winner of match 59 needs only to win one game to claim the title against the winner of match 61, who in turn must beat the match 59 winner twice to make it.
The finale today will be aired live at 7 p.m. on ART Channel. Sheikh Talal Al-Mohammed Al-Sabah, president of the Asian Bowling Federation, is expected to attend the day’s proceedings in the tournament organized under the patronage of the president of the General Presidency of the Saudi Youth Welfare Prince Sultan ibn Fahd.
Director of the organizing committee and UBC owner Prince Abdulhakim ibn Musaed appreciated Prince Sultan’s support and his attendance at the closing ceremony.
He said they managed to hold successful local and international events despite the fact that the state-of-the-art bowling facility opened only a few years back. “This will continue because we want to support bowling in Saudi Arabia and for the Saudi bowlers to proudly raise the Kingdom flag in the most prestigious championships hopefully,” he said.
After 15 days of strong competition featuring 200 Saudi and international bowlers, the 32 qualifiers are as follows: Naif Oqab (UAE), Shaker Al-Hassan (UAE), Hassan Alsheikh, (Saudi Arabia), Rafael “Paeng” Nepomuceno (Philippines), Yousif Al-Jaber (Qatar), Bandar Al-Shafi (Qatar), Mubarak Al-Muraikhi (Qatar), Majid Aslani (Saudi), Tim Mack (USA), Josh Blanchard (USA), Talal Toweireib (Saudi), Patrick Healey (USA), Mahmoud Mazloum (Egypt), Andres Gomez (Colombia), Mansour Al-Awami (Qatar), Fahad Al-Amadi (Qatar), Ziad Anwar (Egypt), Humberto Vazques (Mexico), Ronnei Russell (USA), Phoemphun Yaksem (Thailand), Lucas Legnani (Argentina), Mohammed Al-Saudi (Saudi), Bader Alsheikh (Saudi), Shaikh Abdulhameed (India), Khalid Al-Dousari (Qatar), Yasser Abureesh (Saudi), Andrew Frawley (Australia), Abdullah Haroon (Qatar), Jasim Darweish (Kuwait), Prince Abdulhakim ibn Musaed (Saudi), Faisal Sugati (Saudi), and Yousef Akbar (Saudi).
American professional bowler Mack scored the first perfect 300 300 game in the competition on Saturday.
