Mizuno player Bettina Hauert of Germany secured her second Ladies European Tour victory after a dramatic and rain-soaked final round at the Finnair Masters in Finland.

The 25-year-old carded rounds of 68, 67 and 72 to finish with a six-under-par aggregate of 207.

Her three-stroke victory over Sweden’s Johanna Westerberg at the Helsinki Golf Club was the perfect warm-up for her debut appearance on the European Solheim Cup Team in 12 days’ time. Lotta Wahlin from Sweden took third with a two-under-par 211 aggregate score, while English teenager Kiran Matharu and Åsa Gottmo, also from Sweden, tied for fourth on one-under-par.

Difficult winds and frequent showers played their part in the day’s action, with the lead shifting several times between Hauert, Westerberg and Finnish 23-year-old Kaisa Ruuttila. Hauert got off to the worst possible start, taking an eight at the par-four first hole. Having begun the day with a four-stroke lead on seven-under, she hit her first tee-shot out-of-bounds. She then took three shots to reach the green with her second ball before three-putting to wipe out her lead and draw level with Ruuttila. The Finn, a first year Tour player, then took control with a birdie at the third. Despite being encouraged by a chorus of cheers from the home galleries, she dropped four shots in three holes from the fifth to drop to level par. Westerberg seized the advantage after birdies at the seventh and ninth holes, emerging one stroke ahead of Hauert.

But the German lived up to her reputation for playing well under pressure, firing three birdies in a row with her MX-25's from the 12th to snatch the lead from Westerberg, who triple-bogeyed the 12th. The Swede responded with a couple of birdies, but it was not enough to threaten Hauert, who, despite making a late bogey at the 16th, signed off with a birdie at the last to take her second title of 2007 following her victory at the Deutsche Bank Ladies Swiss Open in May.

 “A rollercoaster is the best word to describe it,” said Hauert, whose first prize cheque for €30,000 took her to the top of the New Star Money List with season’s earnings of €213,458. “I started very bad and I was fighting my way all the time. Finally I found my rhythm and was calm. I was swinging calmer. I found my way back in the game and I found a level. It was really exciting to get to the 18th with a two shot lead. “After the first hole where I hit it out of bounds I thought this is going to be a long day at the office. I’m really glad I got my game back and I finished with a birdie on 18.

“When I was standing over the ball the wind picked up really strongly. I went to hit it low and I snap hooked it.  After the drive, I thought, ‘okay, I have to make the green’, but that eight broke my neck a bit. I kept going – I got up and down on the second with a very good bunker shot.

“It was just about keeping it going. That eight came as a big shock to me. It was a big shock because everything that I had was gone already. Before the round everybody was saying to me that I had got it, that it would be easy, but then it was all gone.

“It was hard but if you want to win a tournament you’ve got to get over an eight, and that’s what I did.”

The BBC Radio Kent Ladies English Open trophy remained in Swedish hands when Mizuno user Cecilia Ekelundh claimed her third Ladies European Tour victory at Chart Hills Golf Club in Biddenden, Kent.

Using MX-23 irons and F-50 fairways woods Ekelundh captured this year's title by a stroke from Germany's Martina Eberl in a spectacular final day battle which saw three players at the top of the leader board.

Ekelundh, who tied for the overnight lead with Denmark's Amanda Moltke Leth, carded a final round 70 to win on a 210 six-under-par total. Eberl had a 70 and finished on 211, five-under-par after 54-holes.

Denmark's Amanda Moltke-Leth, who shared the overnight lead with Ekelundh, eventually signed for a 73 and outright fourth position after relinquishing her final round lead. Moltke-Leth led by one on five-under-par after 12 holes but finished on a three-under-par aggregate. After the Dane dropped a shot at hole-13, Moltke-Leth, Ekelundh and Eberl shared a three-way tie for the lead on four-under-par.

When both Scandinavians birdied hole-14, Ekelundh's birdie broke a run of 13 pars in succession. At 16, the pivotal hole, the Swede gained a two stroke advantage when she chipped and putted for birdie and Moltke Leth found the bunkers twice on her way to a double bogey seven. Ekelundh birdied the short 17th with a putt from inside eight feet to move to seven-under-par but three-putted the last from the back of the green for bogey and her victory.

"I was a bit nervous on 18 but apart from that I was fine. I played well and I was so happy," said Ekelundh, who previously won back-to-back Portuguese Ladies' Open titles in 2004 and 2005.

"This is one of my favourite courses all year if not the favourite. It's a good design and you never see the same hole twice. I've had some good finishes here and I hope I get to come back and play here again."

100 Years of Sports and Mizuno - A Century of Sports: 

Rihachi Mizuno was born in 1884 in Ogaki, Gifu Prefecture, a town hit by a major earthquake in 1891. At the age of 13 he left for Osaka with the hope of rebuilding the Mizuno family fortune. At the age of 18 he saw a baseball game played by the Daisan High School baseball club and was immediately fascinated.

After returning to Osaka from service in the Russo-Japanese war, in 1906 he established Mizuno Brothers Ltd and started selling order made athletic uniforms. With a focus on production technologies, he also began to manufacture sports equipment. He hosted the Kansai Students' Federation Baseball Championship. In the same year the company began to manufacture baseball gloves and baseballs.

In 1936, on the 30^th anniversary of the company's founding, Mizuno began to produce gliders under the theme of 'Sports: from land to sea and sky.' Within a few years, a Mizuno glider set the Japanese record for height and time aloft for a glider.

After the Second World War, Mizuno obtained many patents and utility model rights, and continued to manufacture products of exceptional functionality and quality. Mizuno became more actively involved with the Olympics with each of the games held in Japan - the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the 1972 Sapporo Winter Olympics, and the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics.

As a Gold Sponsor at the Nagano Olympics, Mizuno provided the outfits (made completely of recyclable materials) for over 24,000 people, both staff and volunteers.

At Mizuno we pledge to put our wholehearted effort into building a peaceful, healthy world through the promotion of sports in the 21st century. In particular we wish to help children around the world enjoy sports and grow up healthy in body and mind.

Masato Mizuno, President, Mizuno Corporation.