RI bridge pair finish sixth in The Hague

Mustofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Winter Olympics hopefuls Denny Sacul and Franky Karwur finished in sixth place at the just-concluded 16th Cap Gemini bridge tournament in The Hague, the Netherlands, but they will still be going back automatically to next year's event.

The Indonesian pair booked an overall 793 points. Norway dominated the four-day competition with Geir Helgemo/Tor Helness and Boye Brogeland/Erik Saelensminde taking the top place with 888 points and second place with 821 points respectively.

Denny and Franky, one of the Indonesian pairs in the 2001 Bermuda Bowl in Paris, could have ended up better. They stayed in third going into Sunday's matches, in which they got mixed results.

The Indonesians drew with Sabine Auken/Daniela von Arnim of Germany 50-50 in the 13th game, lost to Andrei Gromov/Alezandre Petrounine of Russia 39-61, and beat Agustin Madala/Pablo Ravenna of Argentina 61-39.

The annual tournament, which is called the Wimbledon of Bridge, featured 16 world top pairs. The six top placings from the previous year are traditionally awarded automatic berths in the next tournament.

Denny and Franky came to the 2002 event having taken fourth place in 2001.

Indonesia's best performance in the tournament was in 1996 when Eddy Manoppo and Henky Lasut returned home as runner-ups.

The fact that Denny and Franky narrowly escaped relegation from the automatic participants' list should relieve them and will now make them more confident about the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

"Denny and Franky could have ended up better than the final standings showed. Even though, this proved to be a good warm-up for Denny and Franky ahead of Salt Lake," Bert Toar Polii, the secretary-general of the Indonesian Contract Bridge Association (Gabsi), told The Jakarta Post.

"Being automatic qualifiers for the tournament spared them travel fares and accommodation costs. And they are coming back next year," he said.

Bert said that the two players were joining their seniors Eddy Manoppo and Henky Lasut in Albuquerque, Texas, where the Indonesian team would warm up in a local tournament as part of their preparations before going on to Salt Lake City, Utah.

Ten countries from five continents are on the contending list for the unprecedented bridge exhibition, which is scheduled for Feb. 2 through Feb. 6 during the 2002 Winter Olympics.

The ten are Australia, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Italy, Norway, Poland and host the United States.