4th December, Doha: Mostafa Al-Mousawi of Kuwait set the qualifying pace of the H.H. Emir Cup 2023 underway at Qatar International Bowling Center by occupying pole position with Ali Al Rashdi of UAE in second and Ivan Tse of Hong Kong in third.

The Kuwiti amassed a total of 2098 with three attempts of 644, 758 and 696 to take top spot. Al Rashdi rolled 701, 678 and 704 for a 9-game aggregate of 2083, just 15 pins off Al-Mousawi. 2023 IBF World Championships Trios gold medalist, Tse shot 655m 721 and 706 to take up third with 2082.

Last year's second runner-up, Yousef Al-Jabir was Qatar's best performer in fouth position with 2074 while a second Kuwaiti, Khaled Al-Dubbyan and Jassim Al-Muraikhi of Qatar completed the top 6 with 2054 and 2053 respectively.

The top 6 in the standings will earn a bye and automatically qualify for Step 2 finals. UAE's Naif Oqab headed the second bracket in seventh position with 2041 followed by Mansour Al-Hajri of Qatar in eighth with 2028.

Positions 27 and 28 are reserved for the Top 2 Qatari Youth qualifiers not in the top 26. Positions 29 and 30 are reserved for the Top 2 qualifiers from the first 2 days of qualifying rounds.

Positions 31 and 32 are reserved for the Top 2 highest scorers in the one-game Desperado Squad. Twenty-six will bowl 8 games from scratch in Step 1 finals on Friday December 8. The top 10 with the highest score will advance to Step 2 finals along with the top 6 seeded qualifiers from the general standings for another 8 games on Saturday 9 December 9.

The top 5 with the highest scores in Step 2 finals will proceed to the next step. Players positioned 3, 4 and 5 will bowl one game in Step 3. The winner will proceed to meet the second seed from Step 2 over one game in Step 4.

The winner in Step 4 will meet the top seed from Step 2 in the title match in Step 5. The winner of Step 5 will be declared the champion.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Doha, Qatar.