The 40th Ballmaster Open was big success to the organizers, but also big success to bowling. Mika Koivuniemi who after 12 years had a possibility to come to Ballmaster and Tali showed to all of us that he still is the Big Finn. He beat all three opponents in the stepladder and travelled home with the 15.000 euro in his pocket.

The legend of PBA bowling, Parker Bohn III, was a runaway leader in the round robin and took the first place for the stepladder. Also our female guest, very technical bowler star from Singapore, Cherie Tan jumped easily to the TV-show.

Tomas Leandersson and Mika Koivuniemi had to fight until the last frames of round robin before their places in the show were sure. In the first match against Tomas Leandersson, Mika took the comfortable lead in the middle of the game. In the last frame he had a change to close the door from Tomas, but he could not do it. But neither was Tomas good enough to use the given change. Mika won 210-199.

After that Mika knew the way to bowl and match against Cherie was easy to him. Mika broke her dreams of the victory by scores 270-195.

There were two great PBA bowlers in the big anniversary Ballmaster Open, and those two met in the last game. On the table there was the 15.000 euro check for the winner. In the first frame Mika left a big split and Parker took the lead; but only for a short while.

From the second frame Mika showed that he is still worth of the nick name Big Finn and won the game 248-203. “It’s always wonderful to win. That is the “drug” which is making me to do this work and this very heavy sport. But it was of course more important to me to win this anniversary tournament in Finland. It felt good to see how much there were people in Tali center watching the end of the excellent tournament”, Mika said.

- seija lankinen