17th January, Muscat: Two-time Amir Cup winner, Kim Bolleby of Sweden took over the lead of the overall qualifying standings of the Muscat International Open Bowling Championships at Al Seeb Bowling Center on Saturday.

The Swede rolled 682 in his first 3-game series and 686 in his second series before capping off with a stunning 746 series and took his 9-game tally to 2114 for the lead. Overnight leader, Aseel Alroomi of Kuwait settled for second spot with 2089. The top two highest qualifier will automatically advance to Round 3 Finals.

Khalid Issa and Musaab Aladwi, who tied in second earlier with 2054, slipped down to third and fourth but will still automatically qualify for Round 3 Finals as the top two Omani. 2025 IBF World Cup Team gold medalist, Ahmed Muaz, who missed the bye, finished fifth with 2046.

The Malaysian headed qualifiers positioned 5 to 30 for the Round 2 Semi-finals, followed by 33rd South-East Asian Games Team gold medalist, Marc Dylan Custodio of Philippines in sixth with 2039. Big mover was Mahmood Alattar of UAE up to seventh with 2029.

2025 Asian Youth Team gold medalist, Abdulrazzaq Mohammed of Kuwait, Mohammed Syazirol Shamsuddin of Malaysia and Kim Hyunmin of Korea rounded out the top 10. Morgan Lim of Singapore, who rolled the first perfect game of the tournament and 734 series to take up 11th position with 2017.

The current cut at 30th position went to Abdulrahman Aldoseri of Qatar with 1944. Qualifiers positioned 5 to 30 along with the top 2 qualifiers from the one-game Desperado squad will make the cut for Round 2 Semi-finals over 6 games. The top 12 at the end of the Semi-finals will be joined by the four seeded qualifiers from the general standings for another 8 games.

The top 5 at the end of the Final will proceed to the Stepladder Shootout finals. The third-seed, fourth-seed and fifth-seed will square off over one match. The winner of the first match will advance to face the second-seed, again over one match.

The winner of the second match will face the top-seed over one match to determine this year's champion. The top prize for the champion is 8,500 Omani riyal (approx. US$22,000) with 4,300 riyal to the first runner-up and 3,000 riyal to the second runner-up.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Muscat, Oman.