Two Chinas hold grip on bridge meet

WELLINGTON (AFP): Chinese Taipei and China hold the top positions in the Far East Bridge Championship as pre-tournament favoritism proves an accurate guide to form here yesterday.

The first round of matches in all three events ended early Friday morning and the teams now face a second round over the next five days to decide the championship.

In the open event Chinese Taipei finished the round with three good wins over Indonesia, Singapore and Japan.

The match with Indonesia was the most critical of the tournament so far, as the two countries had been very close at the top of the points table until that stage.

Chinese Taipei overwhelmed defending champions Indonesia 25-3, to ensure top placing when going into the second round of matches.

Indonesia still hold second place with Japan in third and New Zealand in fourth position.

In the women's event, the winner seems already decided with defending champions China more than 30 points ahead of the field.

In an amazing run of eight big wins and one marginal loss, they have scored 205 out of a possible 225 points so far.

Australia is in second place on 174, leaving another big gap back to New Zealand on 147.

The competition in the youth event is very much tighter, but again China heads the field, this time by just eight points from defending champions Australia, with Chinese Taipei, Indonesia and New Zealand still in touch. Points after completion of the first series of matches: Open

Chinese Taipei 222, Indonesia 203, Japan 184, New Zealand 178, China 177, Australia 169, Philippines 166, Thailand 150, Hong Kong 139, Macau 132, Singapore 111. Women's China 205, Australia 174, New Zealand 147, Indonesia 137, Philippines 129, Chinese Taipei 125, Japan 121, Singapore 115, Thailand 109, Hong Kong 80. Youth China 181, Australia 173, Chinese Taipei 163, Indonesia 153, New Zealand 148, Thailand 127.5, Japan 120.5, Singapore 89, Hong Kong.