Oskar Broström Dominates
at the Kungsbacka International

  By: Brandy Padilla

The final Super Series and European Bowling Tour (EBT) event of the year, the Kungsbacka International 2004, was held December 13 - December 19 at the Kungsbacka Bowling Center in Sweden. Many bowlers participated but only 48 made it to the match play rounds.

Hundreds of bowlers participated in qualifying rounds competing for one of the top 44 spots. During each of the qualifying rounds, participants bowl 6 games changing lanes after each game. Players have the option of re-entering to better their scores. After the qualifying rounds are completed, the top 44 bowlers are seeded according to the qualifying scores. Leading the top 44 was Erik Andersin of Sweden with a score of 1543 followed by Tomas Leandersson, also of Sweden , with 1535.

A desperado round is also held. During the desperado round, any bowler can enter the 'last chance' single game competition in an effort to win one of the remaining four spots. The top four scorers from the desperado round are seeded in positions 44 - 48 and move ahead to match play. The depsarado round was won by Mikko Ylitalo of Finland with a score of 278 followed closely by countrywoman Reija Lundén with 275.

With qualifying and the desperado completed, the real competition starts heating up.

Round 1 of match play places seeds 33 - 48 in head - to - head, best of five competitions. Simply put, the first player to win three games moves ahead in the competition. Eight players move ahead to compete against seeds 25 - 32 in Round 2. Round 3 places the round 2 winners against seeds 17 -24. The round 3 winners move ahead to compete against seeds 9 - 16 in round 4. In the final round of cuts, the winners of round 4 face-off against seeds 1 - 8. From there, eight players move into the quarterfinals.

During the quarterfinals, Or Aviram became the first player to make it to the semi-final match defeating Paul Moor 3 - 0. Mathias Olsson defeated Kai Virtanen, who recently won the World Cup, 3 - 1. Petri Mannonen defeated Christer Danielsson in a very close 3 - 2 match having only a few pins difference in each of the five games. In the last quarterfinal match, Oskar Broström defeated Christer Pettersson 3 - 2. The four winners now move into the single game elimination semi-final match.

Match one seeded Mathias Olsson against Petri Mannonen. After a very close 204 - 200 match, Mathias Olsson emerged victorious. Match 2 seeded Oskar Broström against Or Aviram. With a nice score of 255, Oskar advanced to the final match.

In the final match, Oskar Broström faced Mathias Olsson. Oskar emerged as the winner shooting 207 to Olsson's 184.

 
Oskar Broström, Winner of the 2004 Kungsbacka International

For his win, Oskar earned 8600 Euros; a little more than $11,000 US. Knowing the extra money would be useful for his upcoming wedding must have been his extra motivation.