18-year-old Peppi Konsteri, who won the European championship, aims to go to the United States for the women’s professional bowling tour. Sometimes Konsteri may still be seen in the more lucrative men’s top league.
Sweden had celebrated at the European Bowling Championships held in mid-August. It impressed the 18-year-old first-timer at the adult games Peppi Konster.
In the team competition, Finland finished seventh, but Konsteri knocked the pins upside down in such a way that he won the championship of the all event series. The results of all other game formats are added together in the format most valued by bowlers. Konsteri scored 5013 points in 24 series, or the average was 208.9.
– In general, I was a bit bummed that I did so well. Before going to the games, bowling was pretty rough. For the first time, I felt like I was really good. Often others have thrown badly and I have thrown ok, but now I know that Swedes don’t throw badly, Konsteri says a couple of weeks later at the Kaupi bowling alley in Tampere.
On Sunday in Wittelsheim, France, the Junior European Championship will start, where Konsteri will travel for the last time for his age. Due to the championship of the adult series, eyes turn to him.
– There is a lot more pressure than before, it’s exciting. I’ve gone from being a little 14-year-old at the first games to someone that the crowd knows. It’s a great thing.
Throwing with two hands was not Konster’s thing
The last name Konsteri is familiar to those who follow bowling. Twenty years ago, father Sami Konsteri won several medals in prestigious competitions and is now a bowling entrepreneur.
So it’s no wonder that Peppi Konsteri started spending time at Turku’s Kupitta hall as soon as he learned to walk. At the age of four, he already announced to “the priests and grandmothers in the hall” that he would one day become the best bowler in the world.
Competitions started at the age of 8. The development was so strong that a few years later other hobbies, football and baseball, were allowed to stay. Konsteri was selected for the future group of bowling, which is a step before national team representation.
– At that point I had the feeling that this is my thing. The emerging trend today is two-handedness in bowling and my father suggested then that I should become the first woman to bowl with two hands. I said I don’t want to sacrifice my career, Konsteri recalls with a laugh.
Today, the father has the role of a counselor. Art is guided by the head coach of the national team Jarmo Ahokas.
A psychologist helped me cope with the pressure
Bowling fills Peppi Konster’s life. This fall, the plan is to earn a white cap from Tampere’s Sammo Central High School, but otherwise the days are spent with the clatter of falling bowling pins. There are rarely breaks in the hall and there are two hundred competitions a year.
The repetitions required of top athletes have become enormous. On a rough count, the bowling ball has already left Konster’s hand hundreds of thousands of times.
Konsteri has been practicing a lot with the boys, competing and fooling around in training, and it shows in her throwing. The rapidly spinning ball makes a decent turn before the bowling alley.
– The package is in pretty good condition. I have some knowledge, of course there is room for improvement.
Physics also needs to be rocked. There may be up to 30 series a day and you can feel it in your body. Good to try.
In bowling, the strong have the one whose head holds up in tough places. The mental side has been a problem for Konster, but with the psychologist things have progressed by leaps and bounds. Under the pressure of the European Championships, Konsteri held on.
The head has also been able to bowl the perfect 300 run that all bowlers covet, six times so far. Konster did it for the first time at the age of 15, i.e. as the youngest Finnish woman.
Turn pro first on the women’s PWBA tour
Peppi Konsteri wants bowling to fill his life in the future as well.
– I want bowling to become my profession and to be able to bowl practically for the rest of my life.
Several universities in the United States have tried to attract Konster to their ranks. Moods regarding the departure are going on a rollercoaster, and the decision should be made no later than next spring.
Konster seems to be more interested in professional tours. There have only been Finns on the women’s PWBA tour before Paulina Aalto at the turn of the millennium.
Konsteri hopes to go on the women’s tour organized in the summer with an experimental mindset as early as next year. Even that would not be possible without the support of sponsors.
– Bowling can earn a little money, but a young woman doesn’t earn the same way as Tiena Tomas Kyähköt sun others who clean the races.
Bigger money moves on the men’s PBA tour. Many American female bowlers and some European ones have also managed to break through in the men’s series. Peppi Konster’s idol By Kelly Kulick he even has one victory in the men’s major tournament in the PBA.
That’s what Konster’s path leads to – maybe someday. The goal requires a few hundreds of thousands of throws, but at least it won’t be caught due to a lack of passion.
Peppi from Konster adds more in Sunday’s Sports section. TV1 at 20:45.