Mads Sandbaekken from Norway (pictured left), the reigning World Youth Championships Masters champion, swept four-time European champion Petteri Salonen, Finland, two-game-to-none to end the 2007 Men's European Championships at Plus Bowling in Vienna, Austria, with victory in the Masters competition.

Sandbaekken, who turned 20 during the MEC last week, won the first game 230-226 and sealed the victory when she struck eight times in the first nine frames of game #2 to win the game and the match, 229-209.

Sandbaekken (center, with team manager Erik Garder, left and coach Mats Karlsson, right) averaged 2713 for his eleven games today, an average of 246,64. He started the Masters finals of the top 24 players from All Events with a 2-0 victory over Joonas Jehkinen, Finland, then went the distance to beat Dominic Barrett, England, 2-1, after being down 1-0 thanks to back to back 250-plus games.

He swept another Englishman Darren Cundy, England, in the quarterfinal and Swede Dennis Eklund in the semi-final, 2-0, to advance to the title match.

Salonen (left) sidelined Dane Jesper Agerbo, 2-1, in the opening round the defeated Leonidas Maragkos, Greece, in the deciding third game when he posted the 289 high game of the day for a 2-1 victory.

The Finn swept World Championship Masters runner-up Achim Grabowski, Germany, in the quarterfinal before he was able to weather a strong challenge by Mike Quarry from England in the semi-final, 2-1.

Eklund (right), a newcomer on the Swedish national team ousted Thomas Larsen, Denmark (2-0), and his team mate Robert Andersson, World Doubles champions and silver medalists in Doubles here in Vienna (2-1) in the first twp rounds. He then topped Dane Bo Winther Pedersen in the quarterfinal before he fell to the eventual winner.

Quarry (left), who made the cut to the top 24 in 23rd position, started with a 2-0 victory over Tobias Karlsson, Sweden, then struck in 17 out of 20 frames against No. 2 seed Martin Larsen to eliminate the Swede in two games 278-268 and 265-203. Quarry went on to defeat No. 1 seed Osku Palermaa, 2-0, before falling to his team mate Salonen in the semi-final.

Salonen earned the silver medal while Mike Quarry, England and Dennis Eklund, Sweden shared the bronze.

Finland led the medal tally of the 2007 Men's European Championships with two gold, one silver and two bronze medals. Sweden (1-2-1), Norway (1-1-0) and Austria (1-0-0) won the other titles. England (0-1-2), Denamrk (0-0-2) as well as Germany and Greece (one bronze medal each) rounded out the eight out of 35 nations present in Vienna, Austria, who shared the medals.


Masters Results

Gallery

Masters - Final Standings

1. and winner of the gold medal
#19 Mads Sandbaekken, Norway
2. and winner of the silver medal
#16 Petteri Salonen, Finland
3. and winner of the bronze medal
#18 Dennis Eklund, Sweden
4. and winner of the bronze medal
#23 Mike Quarry, England

L-R Salonen, champion Sandbaekken, Quarry and Eklund. Click on the image to enlarge it.
5. #1 Osku Palermaa, Finland
6. #3 Darren Cundy, England
7. #4 Bo Winther Pedersen, Denmark
8. #8 Achim Grabowski, Germany
9. #2 Martin Larsen, Sweden
10. #5 Dominic Barrett, England
11. #6 Robert Andersson, Sweden
12. #7 Leonidas Maragkos, Greece
13. #11 Thomas Gross, Austria
14. #20 Federico Rossi, Italy
15. #21 Or Aviram, Israel
16. #24 Magnus Andersson, Sweden
17. #9 Remco Verboon, Netherlands
18. #10 Tobias Karlsson, Sweden
19. #12 Thomas Tybl, Austria
20. #13 Kai Guenther, Germany
21. #14 Joonas Jehkinen, Finland
22. #15 Thomas Larsen, Denmark
23. #17 Jesper Agerbo, Denmark
24. #22 Lasse Ingebrigtsen, Norway

Masters Title Match Game #2 (frame 6 till the end)

© Produced by Bowlingdigital and Flavio Cuva.

Slide show from the Men's European Championships

© by Benjamin Kubalek