Indonesia, France battle for bridge lead

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia cruised to a hat trick of wins on the fourth day of the 10th Bridge Olympics on Rodos Island, Greece, Wednesday to step up the pressure on group leader France.

Indonesia's three convincing wins included a 21-9 upset of defending champion France in the 14th session of the tournament.

The quartet of Eddy Manoppo/Henky Lasut and Giovanni Watulingas/Sance Panelewen completed the day with a 17-13 win over Chile and another 21-9 rout of China to lie second behind France on the Group A leader board.

After 16 sessions on Wednesday, France had collected 323 victory points to go nine points clear of Indonesia. New Zealand was third just a point behind Indonesia, while Spain was fourth on 305.

In Group B, Italy shot to the top of the standings with 308 points, just half a point better than overnight leader Israel. Iceland, Chinese Taipei and Norway were third, fourth and fifth respectively.

The Indonesian women, however, failed to emulate their compatriots' commendable showing, managing only a draw with Pakistan and losing to Hungary to stay in 17th place with 126 points.

Indonesia's non-playing men's captain Munawar Sawiruddin said that his team's illustrious win over France was a matter of pair choices.

"We picked the number one pair of Henky and Eddy to play France's trump cards Alain Levy and Hervei Moueil who have never won in their previous encounters," Munawar was quoted by Antara as saying.

The Indonesian duo last beat the Frenchmen in the Cup Volmac invitational tournament in The Hague, the Netherlands, last January.

Munawar's strategy paid off when Henky and Eddy maintained their winning streak over the French number one pair. The victory inspired Giovanni and Sance to down France's second-string duo of Christian Mari and Marc Bompis.

On the fifth day, Indonesia expects to garner 90 more points from matches against Denmark, Argentina, Bermuda and Sweden. A total of 135 countries are taking part in quadrennial event. (amd)