27-year-old bowling star Tomas Käyhkö is gaining fame in the United States.
Timo Uusitalo,
Nina Old house
Tomas Käyhkö bowled himself into the finals of the US professional tour’s PBA Delaware Classic, where he bowed out in a one-set match David Krolia against late Sunday Finnish time. Second place brought Käyhkö $15,000 in prize money.
The value of the top performance is enhanced by the fact that Käyhkö eliminated the world’s number one bowler from the tournament in the playoff stage. Already last season, Tomas Käyhkö from Joensuu reached the third place in the US Open, proving once again that he is among the world’s best.
After the preliminary competition of the 18 series of the PBA Delaware Classic, Käyhkö finished third in the results after playing with an average of 232.89 points.
In the playoff phase, the Finn did not give a single series against top professionals. Best-of-seven series matches were played in the playoffs. First, Käyhkö crushed by Tom Smallwood 4–0.
After that, Käyhkö faced the number one bowling star, Australia Jason Belmonte40, who has won, among other things, 15 PBA tour Major titles, as well as being selected as the tour’s bowler of the year no less than seven times.
– A great game from me by perhaps the best bowler of all time. Pretty great feelings after that, admitted the national team bowler representing Varkaus Mainari.
Käyhkö didn’t even give Belmonte a series, and the Finn marched to the TV final ranked first with a 4–0 win.
In the final of one series, Käyhkö had to bow against David Krol 170–198.
– After a difficult early season, a good week of bowling, but a bit of a sad ending, losing the final match. That’s how close I got though. All in all, a good feeling, said the Finnish hero.
Sudoku calmed me down
Kyähkö had problems with his throw from the beginning of the season, which was largely due to a minor injury to his upper back. It affected his bowling performances.
– When the competitions went badly, the thoughts also started to go a bit in bad places, Käyhkö referred to the crumbling of self-confidence.
Playing Sudoku between games was the Finn’s means of relaxation, which he used to get rid of useless thoughts in the PBA Delaware Classic.
– Shortly before this competition, a couple of things were found in my throwing, which made the whole thing in better shape. It felt like a lot of things fell into place and, in addition, the right circumstances happened, Käyhkö unlocked the keys to his successful week.
On Tuesday, Käyhkö will fly to Finland and play a couple of weeks before the USBC Masters at the end of March.
– The goal is to win at least one more, big competition and climb to the top 16 in points on the PBA tour, then there would still be a play offs final ahead, your Käyhkö line rising to the top 20 in the rankings.