Indoensia assured of Winter Games berth
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesia is set for an unprecedented entry in the Winter Olympics following the inclusion of the national team in the 10- field bridge exhibition event at the upcoming 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The official notification was released by the World Bridge Federation (WBF) in its official letter sent to Gabsi, the country's bridge governing body, dated Nov. 9.
Indonesia, one of only two Asian teams, will be joined in the Olympic competition in Salt Lake by Australia, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, India, Italy, Norway, Poland and the host United States.
Bert Toar Polii, Gabsi's deputy secretary general, told The Jakarta Post that the entry policy was based not only on the participants' achievements in the world's major bridge tournaments, but on the federation's worldwide goals.
Italy, Norway, Poland, and the U.S. received their berths, due to their undisputed dominance and high rank in international bridge, while Indonesia has joined the elite ranks, particularly courtesy of its championship title at the 2000 IOC Grand Prix in Lausanne.
"WBF also wanted all regions of the world to be represented at the competition," Bert said.
He did however state that those teams in the lower half of the rankings should not, by any means, be taken lightly.
"Some of them have proven from the Bermuda Bowl that they are teams to be reckoned with in tournaments," he said in a reference to the recently-concluded World Bridge Championship in Paris, where Indonesia struggled through from the preliminary round before being defeated by Norway in the quarterfinals.
In an attempt to draw more bridge fans, the Salt Lake bridge competition will be played with the scoring system called 'board match', which will provide easily understandable match standings between two teams.
The scoring system will also adopt the soccer-like win-loss reward format in which a win is awarded two points, a draw is worth a point and a defeat is zero.
"At the Bermuda Bowl, match results were first given out in IMPs (International Match Point), which had to be converted into Victory Points before the spectators knew who won or lost," Bert said.
Gabsi is currently grooming four pairs for the American trip. They are Eddy Manoppo/Henky Lasut, Denny Sacul/Santje Panelewen, Franky Karwur/Robert Tobing and Giovanni Watulengas/Taufik Hasbi Gautamam.
Although the first three pairs, which are former Bermuda Bowl squads, are most likely to retain their places for the American trip, Bert hinted that the fourth pair's chance of joining the traveling team was a possibility.
"We'll see whether they show progress during the training workouts," he said.
The team is scheduled to spar with Jakarta's 10 leading bridge clubs next Friday as part of the team's planned weekly try-out prior to their departure to the U.S.