Indonesia loses to Italy in Rosenblum Cup final

Indonesia loses to Italy in Rosenblum Cup final

Imanuddin, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

After recording a tremendous score on its way to the final, the
Indonesian team had to admit the supremacy of Team Lavazza of
Italy in the last match of the Rosenblum Cup bridge tournament in
Montreal, Canada, on Wednesday evening (Thursday morning in
Indonesia).

The Indonesian team comprising pairs -- Henky Lasut and Eddy
Manoppo, Denny Sacul and Franky Karwur, and Robert Tobing and
Taufik G. Asbi -- lost 27-41, 21-36 and 13-47 to the winners of
the World Team Bridge Olympiad 2000 and the champion of the last
five European Bridge Championships in the final match.

The Italian pairs were Noberto Bocchi and Giorgio Duboin,
Lorenzo Lauria and Alfredo Versace, and Maria Teresa Lavazza and
Guido Ferraro.

"The Indonesian team's defeat in the final match was an
anticlimax to the players' great performance in the previous
rounds. It reminded us of the 1996 World Team Olympiad in Rhodes
Island, Greece, when Indonesia lost in the final match to France
after performing well in the previous rounds," Bridge observer
Bert Toar Polii told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Team Burgay of Poland, which lost to Indonesia in
the semifinals, eventually took the bronze medal after defeating
Team Freddin of Sweden. The victorious Polish pairs were Cezary
Balicki and Adam Zmudzinsky, Michael Kwiecien and Jacek Pszezola,
and Leonardo Burgay and Carlo Mariani.

However, the Indonesian pairs have yet to return home as they
are due to play in the final matches of the World Pairs Olympiad,
also in Montreal.

"Their position as group finalist in the Rosenblum Cup final
match has automatically granted the three pairs a place in the
final rounds of the World Pairs Olympiad," Polii said.

"They do not have to go through the preliminary round matches
and the semifinals like the others."

The Indonesian team is slated to return home on Sept. 3.