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.