Osku Palermaa (left), Finland, won his second European Bowling Tour title this season and the seventh of his career since 2005 Sunday in the Ebonite Lahti Open in Finland. Patricia Luoto (right), Germany, who won the previous EBT Major, the Columbia 300 Vienna Open, finished fourth and won the women's rankings.

Palermaa, who dominated the 2007 EBT season and even won the inaugural Masters nine months later, targets to win his second consecutive EBT ranking title as he widened his lead to his nearest competitor, Dominic Barrett, England, to 69 points.

The two-hander has cashed ranking points in all 13 events he entered (Maribor was cancelled and he could not bowl in Vienna due to the clash with the Weber Cup) to lead the field of 327 men with 594 ranking point total.

With just three tournaments to go - one Major and two Challengers - in the 2008 season, Barrett (left) is a distant second with 525 pins. While Barrett did not compete in Lahti, the next four players added ranking points to their respective total: 3. Tore Torgersen, Norway, 490 4. Martin Larsen, Sweden, 485 5. Peter Ljung, Sweden, 451 and 6. Paul Moor, England, 325.

Pasi Uotila (right) from Finland (321) overtook Robert Andersson, Sweden (307), who didn't bowl in Lahti, to move into seventh place, the only change among the top 8 this weekend.

There were no changes among the top 8 in the women's rankings, though second-placed Nina Flack, Sweden, and third-placed Nicole Sanders, Netherlands, narrowed the gap to ranking leader and 2008 winner Kirsten Penny (left), England.

Penny missed just her second EBT tournament this season but cashed in all others to lead the field of 265 women with 567 ranking point total.

Flack (right), who was the second-best woman in Lahti, is mere 23 points behind in second place with 544. Sanders (below, left), 10th in the women's rankings in Lahti, is third with 498.

Rounding out the top 8 are 4. Ghislaine van der Tol, Netherlands, 408 5. Britt Brøndsted, Denmark and Tina Hulsch, Germany, both 342 7. Marilyn Planchard, France, 327 and 8. Anne Lorraine Gales, Denmark, 312.

Luoto, who earned 195 ranking points in the last three tournaments leapfrogged to 9th place with 299 points.

The top eight men and the top eight women at the end of the ranking season will qualify for the 2009 World Ranking Masters in Naples, Italy. In addition, the top 16 men and the top 16 women will qualify for the EBT Masters in May 2008 in Aalborg, Denmark.