With four games to go, any of five men could have taken the last two qualifying spots for the quarter-finals of this year's QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Then Badr al Sheikh from Saudi Arabia shot the tournament's fourth 300 game and leap frogged up the table. It was still not all over: four players were now in with a chance of that final coveted place. And so it went on, right to the wire.

After five days and 32 games of bowling, Arturo Hernadez from Venezuela hit the strike at the crucial time to beat England's Steve Thornton by just 9 pins.

Earlier in the day the women's top eight had also been decided. The overnight standings changed little: only Clair Johnston of Australia moved up one place leaving Marieke de Jong of the Netherlands wondering 'What if?' as she dropped to 9th.

So the line-up for the quarterfinals, in order of play, reads:

Men
Gery Verbruggen (Belgium) v Anders Ohman (Sweden)
Lucas Legnani (Argentina) v Or Aviram (Israel)
Petter Hansen (Norway) v Badr al Sheikh (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)
Michael Schmidt (Canada) v Arturo Hernandez (Venezuela)

Women
Wendy Chai (Malaysia) v Nadia Ageel (Al-Awadhi) (Bahrain)
Fiona Banks (England) v Isabelle Saldjian (France)
Helen Johnsson (Sweden) v Ann Louise Haugen (Norway)
Lynda Barnes (USA) v Clair Johnston (Australia)

Matches will start at 08.00. All are best of three, so if one player wins the first two games, no third match will be necessary. There will be no break between matches and all will be recorded for television.

For full results please go to www.amfbowlingworldcup.com or www.arenalive.si and click on the QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup logo.