RI ousted from bridge meet semis

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's struggle to elbow its way into the semifinal of the Bermuda Bowl men's team world bridge championship in Beijing ended in defeat on Sunday.

Indonesia was finally edged out of the competition 223-181 by USA-2, after managing to take a 158-143 lead during the early sessions. The same fate befell China, which was beaten 193-196 by France, as well as defending champion the Netherlands, which fell 227-182 to Sweden.

"Actually, there was a good chance of winning but our second pair was not able to cover our exhaustion," said Hengky Lasut, one half of Indonesia's number one pair, with Eddy Manoppo. He was referring to Danny Sacul and Franky Karwur, whom many regard as the country's second strongest pair.

Hengky and Eddy are a veteran pair whom Indonesia relies on heavily. In one match they were replaced by a more junior pair to enable them take a rest, but the result was disappointing.

After that, non-playing captain Yasin Wijaya decided to field them every day. That decision forced them to play seven hours a day against their competitors, a task which finally wore them out.

Before the third session on Saturday, Indonesia had taken a 158-143 lead over USA-1, which was spearheaded by Jeff Meckstroth and Eric Rodwell. But in the last three sessions, the most senior Indonesian pairs could no longer avoid burn-out and the law of diminishing returns began to come into play.

In the fourth session, it suffered a 29-44 loss. A bigger loss, of 14-30, followed. Finally, in the sixth and closing session, Indonesia was down 9-50.

In yesterday's semifinals, USA-2 was to take on Canada, which beat South Africa 276-190, while France was to challenge Sweden.

As for the Venice Cup women's team world bridge championship, held simultaneously in Beijing, the four semifinalists are host China, which beat Venezuela 243-83; USA-2, after a 274-216 win over USA-1; France, which notched a 229-126 win over South Africa; and Germany, which defeated Japan 229-194. (arf)