Gabsi wants PABF to open up entry for world meet

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

As the Asia-Pacific contract bridge governing body PABF may appoint three top teams from last year's PABF Championship in Bangkok as entrants for the revamped Junior World Bridge Championship in Paris this August, the Indonesian Contract Bridge Association (Gabsi) is proposing a tournament to decide the qualifiers for the event.

The Asia-Pacific region has three slots at the championship, which has been moved from the initially planned site of Beijing due to fears surrounding the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak.

"I heard that PABF would pick the three entries based on the 2002 PABF Championship in Bangkok. It means Hong Kong, China and Chinese Taipei as the top three teams at the 2002 championship will qualify for Paris," Bert Toar Polii, Gabsi's deputy secretary-general, told The Jakarta Post here on Tuesday.

"But, we are still trying to push for PABF to hold a tournament to decide the qualifiers as it formerly promised to," Bert said, adding that Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore and Indonesia had declared their intention to compete in Paris.

The option by PABF whether to award Paris berths to last year's regional event's top three or hold a selection has arisen following the rescheduling of the 2003 PABF Championship, also due to SARS.

The PABF event, which is also the qualifying field in the senior, ladies and open division for their international championships to be concurrently held in Monte Carlo in November, has been rescheduled from June to September in Manila.

With its world event to run from Aug. 29 to Sept. 7, the junior qualification will automatically be irrelevant and has been erased from the list of the 2003 PABF event.

"If PABF is to pick (the entrants), it won't be fair because Indonesia did not participate last year. If a selection is to be held, we should have a good chance of qualifying. The decision is expected on May 31," Bert said.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Reza, a member of the newly established national junior team, expected that the team could feature in Paris.

"This should be yet again another chance of playing in the world event after we have failed in the past seven years," Reza, said. The Indonesian junior team last participated in 1995 when it hosted the biennial event in Bali.

Now aged 25, Reza sees the 2003 world championship as his last chance to play at international level.

Gabsi has just completed a national qualifying tournament at the weekend with Reza/Hidayatullah and Ferry Tjandra/Vincent Nikolas being assured of places in the national team after finishing as the winners and runner-ups.

Audy Kamagi/Marzel Kauripan, who took the third place in the tournament, is the likely third pair in the team.

The qualifying tournament, which ran from May 5 to May 17, also played the women's matches with Lusje Bojoh/Joice Mandolang and Elita Syofian/Amelia Amri securing their places in the national team and Fera Damayanti/Ririn Riantini the likely third recruits.