Stavros Parasakis (pictured left) of Greece made history when he defeated Stuart Williams (right) of England, 466-456, to capture the title and the 10.000 top prize in the 8th Storm San Marino Open Sunday evening at Rose'n Bowl in Serravalle, San Marino.

It was the first-ever title for a Greek bowler, man or woman, in the 13-year history of the European Bowling Tour.

Parasakis, seeded sixth for the single-elimination match play finals, took a 39-pin lead after the first game of the championship match with a 242-203 win. All matches consisted of two games, with total pins determining the winners.

Williams, seeded fourth, who was trying to win his seventh career EBT title, rebounded with 253 in game two, but Parasakis maintained a 10-pin lead with 224 to wrap up the title.

In the semifinal match between England's two PBA champions, Williams fired games of 280 and 279 to fly past No. 3 seed, Dominic Barrett (left), 559-433. Barrett advanced to the semis with a 534-379 victory over Stamatis Roros, Greece, in which he rolled the lone 300 game of the tournament. The defeat in the semifinal costs the 2010 EBT point ranking champion the lead in the 2012 ranking.

In the other semifinal match, Parasakis stunned No. 2 seeded, Martin Larsen (right) of Sweden, 469-445. Williams earned 6.009 Euro for second place. Larsen and Barrett received 3.400 apiece for third and fourth place.

USBC Masters champion Mike Fagan (left) of the United States did not compete in San Marino but maintained a slim 25-point lead in the EBT men's ranking with 470 total points. Barrett moved into second place at 445 with Williams in third at 364. Parasakis rocketed into 17th place with 150 points, the points he received in San Marino.

Laurence Gaillard (right) of France was the best of woman in the 242 player field from 21 countries en route to win the women's ranking and 150 points. Gaillard was the only woman who survived the qualifying cut to the top 48 but was eliminated in the first round finishing the tournament in 41st place.

The European Bowling Tour is heading to Spain next week for the 34th Trofeu Internacional Ciutat de Barcelona, which will be held at Bowling Pedralbes in Barcelona from July 17-22

The three-player stepladder finals will be broadcasted live on Eurosport 2 on Sunday, July 22 at 6.15 p.m. CEST.

The 8th Storm San Marino Open is the 11th stop of the 2012 European Bowling Tour and the second out of four EBT "Gold" tournaments this season. The tournament will be held July 7-15 at 18-lane Rose'n Bowl in Serravalle, San Marino and offers total prize fund of 60.200 Euro with 10.000 Euro going to the winner, 6.000 to the runner-up and 3.400 each to the third and fourth place finisher.

The San Marino Open features a 40 feet Kegel lane conditioning pattern with 24.3ml volume oil total.

The qualifying of the San Marino Open (six-game series, unlimited re-entries) ran from Saturday July 7 through Saturday, July 14 and concluded with the one-game Desperado Squad.

Women receive 8 pins handicap each game throughout the entire tournament, a standard for women on the European Bowling Tour.

A total of 48 players advanced to the finals on Sunday, July 15 - the top 35 players from the overall qualifying standings plus the top 3 from the squads conducted on July 7-8, the top 3 from the squads conducted on July 9-10, the top 4 from the squads conducted on July 11-12, and the top 3 from the Desperado Squad. The top 8 qualifiers received two byes and qualifiers 9-16 got one.

The other 32 players will bowl four games from scratch to cut to the top 16, who will meet qualifiers 9-16 in round two. Those 24 bowl another 4 games from scratch to cut to the top 8, who will join the top eight qualifiers in single-elimination match play with the two game total pinfall determining the winner.

The highest seeded player bowls the lowest seeded, the second-highest seeded players bowls the second-lowest and so on. The field will be cut to 8, 4 then 2, who will bowl for the title and the 10.000 Euro top prize.

The 2012 European Bowling Tour is made up of 21 events in 16 countries including two Platinum, four Gold, eight Silver and seven Satellite tournaments.

The top 50 men and the top 50 women in each event earn ranking points based on how they finish in the event. The winner of a Platinum tournament receives 250 ranking points, the winner of a Gold tournament such as the San Marino Open 2012 gets 150, the winner of a Silver tournament earns 100, and the winner of a Satellite tournament gets 50 ranking points.

Those points will be tabulated throughout the season to determine the top 16 men and top 16 women who will compete in the sixth EBT Masters in Bratislava, Slovakia in Sept. 2013.

 

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