2008 Hermosillo, Mexico

The USA’s Derek Eoff remains in the lead after the 24 games of qualifying in the 44th QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup in Hermosillo, Mexico with a total pinfall of 5500, an average of 229.1.

Moving up into second place after a six game block of 1437 was Zulmazran Zulkifli of Malaysia; Zulmazran’s total pinfall is 5402. Sweden’s Martin Larsen in 3rd on 5326 and Jack Guay of Canada in 4th on 5281.

But the star of this afternoon’s bowling was Leonidas Maragkos from Greece who shot 1468 and came from 15th place into 7th. His comment was: “Sounds good! I didn’t do anything different today but lady luck was with me and pins that yesterday did not fall, somehow fell today. I carried everything!”

Local hero Rodolfo Corona has also made it to the next round, lying in 11th place on 5172 and only 38 pins off the 8th spot he will be aiming for tomorrow. Rodolfo is the nephew of Benny Corona who came second in the Bowling World Cup in 1971 in Hong Kong. Currently in 8th place is Francois Sacco of France on 5260.

Just making it into the top 24 were Won-young Choi of Korea, Marek Przezpolewski from Poland and Jonathan Hocsman of Argentina who all who tied on 4988. The unlucky player to miss out, 25 pins off the cut, was Erwin Pascual of Spain on 4963. The top 24 all averaged over 207 and the overall average for all the men was 199.7

Tomorrow the top 24 men and women will bowl the quarter finals, consisting of eight games. After that, the top eight will bowl a further eight games in a round robin with bonus points for winning.