BOWLING – Kuwaiti bowler Mohammed Abul stole the show on the second day of qualifying in the Bahrain Bowling Federation (BBF) National Day Tournament 2025, currently being played at Funland Centre.
Abul played the day’s high series of 721 pins to rise to the top of the leaderboard with a 236.0 pins-per-game average and a 2,124 total from his three best series so far.
Abul’s other top marks were 709 and 694.
Bowlers have to play a minimum three trials in qualification in order for their scores to be counted for the knockout stages.
Abul now leads a Kuwaiti one-two on the standings as he is followed closely by countryman Waleed Alazmi, who has a 228.4 average and 2,056 total.
Day one leader Abdulla Abdulkarim dropped to third with marks of 226.3 and 2,037, while Dexter De Asis from the Philippines rose to fourth with a 219.8 average and 1,978 total.
Mike Kennedy of the US went fifth after improving his average to 219.3 from a 1,974 aggregate, while Ali Arqoub from Jordan was sixth with marks of 216.7 and 1,950.
Completing the top 10 from seventh through 10th, respectively, after day two were Qassim Maitham from Kuwait (213.3, 1,920), senior category bowler Dante Tisdom from the US (205.0, 1,845), Abdulrahman Alduaij from Kuwait (200.3, 1,803), and Bahrain’s Ahmed Fareed (199.9, 1,799).
The tournament’s qualifying phase continues today and will be played until New Year’s Day, after which the knockouts will take place consisting of three rounds, to be followed by the semi-finals and final. These stages will take place on January 2 and 3.
The top three bowlers from qualifying will advance directly to the third elimination stage along with the best Bahraini.
Participants ranked fifth through seventh will go straight to round two along with the best junior Bahraini, born in 2004 and after.
Bowlers ranked ninth through 18th from qualification will make it through to round one, which will feature a 20-player field that will compete over six games.
The others in this stage include the two highest-ranked women’s bowlers from qualifying, the two highest-ranked youth, two highest-ranked senior bowlers born in 1975 and earlier, the two highest-ranked players from the current Early Bird phase, and two other highest-ranked competitors from the desperado qualifying stage.
At the end of round one, the eight top-placed competitors based on total pinfalls will join the four bowlers already waiting in round two to form a 12-player line-up that will compete over another six games.
Then, the top four based on total pinfalls will make it through to round three to join the four who already advanced directly from qualification.
These eight bowlers will be divided into two groups, where they will face one another in a round-robin.
The top two from each group will punch their tickets to the semi-finals, where the first seeds will take on the second seeds in a pair of single-game head-to-head matches.
The winners will move on to battle each other for the title in the final, while the losers will clash for third place – both also over one game each.
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