Abela wins bronze at Euro Champions Cup

Sue Abela confirmed her status as Malta’s most successful bowler when she won a bronze medal at the European Champions Cup in Lahti, Finland, yesterday.

Bowlers from 40 countries took part in the prestigious competition. Malta was represented by Abela and men’s champion Neil Sullivan.

The qualification system involved a total of 24 games, played on varied lane conditions, after which the top eight competitors in each category progressed to the knock-out stages.

Abela established herself as one of the front-runners from the early stages of the qualifying round. She went into the final session just 55 pins above the top-eight cut and so it was all still to play for.

Retaining her composure, Abela rolled a very good 1,618 set for a 4,792 qualifying total which was enough to push her back up to fifth place and into the final stages.

Finland’s Kritan Pollanen overtook Sweden’s Joline Planefors to top the qualifying round with the remaining finalists being Lisa John (England), Janie Gabel (Germany), Isabelle Sacco (France), Alena Korobkova (Russia) and Georgia Sagona (Greece).

The KO final matches were all to be decided on a best-of-three basis. Abela was paired with Gabel who had qualified in fourth. It was the German who took the lead with a 223-169 opening win but then Abela responded with a narrower 183-193 game two equaliser, forcing the deciding third game.

That turned out to be tighter but the Maltese champion just clinched it 190-196 to set up a semi-final clash with top seed Pollanen.

The match developed into the most thrilling of the entire final event. The Finnish bowler claimed the opener by the narrowest of margins, 197-196. As game two commenced, it seemed to be just a continuation of that stressful first game with a very similar ending.

This time, the Finn prevailed with a mere two-pin advantage, 194-192, to book her place in the final. Abela thus claimed bronze after yet another excellent performance.

Spurred by her close victory over Abela, Pollanen easily beat Planefors in the final to secure the gold medal.

In the men’s competition, Sullivan endured a difficult time on the Lahti lanes, finishing 20th among a very tough field of 40 European national champions.

His 4548 (189.5 average) final total comprised a 1,484 on the short condition, 1,579 on the long, and 1,485 on the combined lanes.