RI men and women miss out on quarters at bridge tourney
RI men and women miss out on quarters at bridge tourney
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Indonesian men's bridge team managed only one win in the last
three rounds on Saturday to fall short of a spot in the
quarterfinals in the Bermuda Bowl in Monte Carlo, Monaco.
After losing to Australia 10-20 in the 19th round, Indonesia
bounced back with a convincing 25-2 win over Brazil in the 20th
round. But it failed to maintain its winning form, going down to
Norway 11-19 in the closing round.
Indonesia, which had to compete without its best pair of Eddy
Manoppo/Henky Lasut, collected an overall total of 323.5 points
to finish tenth place in the final standings. The top eight
qualified for the quarterfinals.
Indonesia fielded Taufik G Asbi/Robert Tobing, Franky
Karwur/Santje Panelewen and Santoso Sie/Stefanus Supeno.
Eddy/Henky, who has featured in almost all of Indonesia's
previous performances in the Bermuda Bowl, are now playing in the
Senior Bowl.
The result was a step backward for the men's team, which
reached the quarterfinals in the previous two World Bridge
Championships.
The ladies, however, made a clean sweep in their last three
rounds but just missed qualifying for the top eight. However,
they deserved praise for being able to improve their rankings
from the bottom in past years to a very respectable ninth place
overall.
With a total collection of 253 points, Indonesia, which
comprises Lusje Bojoh/Joice Mandolang, Fera Damayanti/Riantini
and Elita Syofian/Amelia Amri, must have rued the near miss of
qualification, being outscored by eighth-place Sweden by just two
points.
In the last three rounds, Indonesia took its last wins over
Sweden, USA2 and Egypt. Apart from China and Canada, the other
six quarterfinalists all were beaten by the Indonesian ladies
during the round robin competition.
The quarterfinal matches both in Bermuda Bowl and Venice Cup
are played under knockout format. The top half are given freedom
to choose opponents in the bottom half with the leader awarded
first chance to land its choice.
Meanwhile, while they have been excluded from the Indonesia's
Bermuda Bowl team, Eddy and Henky find it an almost unlikely
chance of guiding the senior team to Senior Bowl title as the
Indonesian Contract Bridge Association (Gabsi) has been hoping.
The chance for the title, albeit slim, is open for Indonesia,
which lost to USA1 14-16 and walloped Egypt 25-4 on Saturday,
only if it beats its next three opponents by a very large margin
of victory and the results in other pairings fall its way.
Indonesia, which remained in fifth place with 213 points, will
face Italy, Pakistan and Japan in the last three rounds.
Unlike the Bermuda Bowl for men and Venice Cup for women, the
Senior Bowl does not include a final knockout competition to
determine the champion. The team with the highest points during
the round robin tournament is automatically the champion.
USA1 leads with 232 points, followed by France, USA2 and
Israel.