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Italy's Dramatic Open Victory
Italy's Fulvio Fantoni and Claudio Nunes are the new World Open Pairs Champions. As the final session reached its climax they overturned the seemingly insurmountable lead built up by Zia Mahmood and Michael Rosenberg. Some sporting legends are famous because of what they did not achieve. Ken Rosewall couldn't win Wimbledon, Ted Williams never captured the World Series and Stirling Moss didn't become World Motor Racing Champion. Everyone hopes that Zia will eventually secure the World Championship he clearly deserves. Meanwhile another great showman, Brazil's Gabriel Chagas alongside Diego Brenner finished third. It was Karen McCallum, she also won in 1990 with Kerri Sanborn, and Debbie Rosenberg, who is already planning her new book My Life with Michael, who captured gold in the Women's Pairs, followed by Anne-Frederique Levy and Blandine de Heredia who took silver for France with Kerri Sanborn and Irina Levitina finishing third. |
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The 11th World Bridge Championships takes place in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 16-31, 2002. The Championship is the biggest competition staged by the World Bridge Federation. It is held every four years, in the even-numbered non-leap years. The Championships comprise tournaments for pairs and teams in various categories (open, women, seniors, mixed). This great Championship is open to bridge players from all over the world, and there are no restrictive quotas. The mixed, senior and junior events are open to transnational entries. The 2002 World Championships gives participants a unique opportunity to mix with and perhaps play against the greatest players in the world while at the same time enjoying all the delights of the great city of Montreal. The past The World Bridge Championships came into being in 1962, under the name of World Pair Olympiad which comprised the World Open Pairs Championship, the World Women Pairs Championships, as well as the World Mixed Teams Championship. Pierre Jais and Roger Trézel of France were the first Open Pairs champions, while in the Women event, Rixi Markus and Fritzi Gordon from Great Britain prevailed. The second event, held in 1966 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, had a new competition added to the programme: the World Mixed Pairs Championship. The same programme applied to the third event, organized in 1970 in Stockholm, and the fourth one held in Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain, in 1974. An important change took place in the 1978 Championships, held in New Orleans, which saw the inauguration of the World Knockout Teams for the Rosenblum Cup, named in honour of the former WBF president who had died five months earlier. First holders of the Cup were Poland. A similar competition for women, the McConnell Trophy, was added in 1994 and won by the United States. • For a complete list of the previous events, their venues and winners, click here. • To see the reigning champions, click here to go to the 1998 World Championships site |
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