After two sensational finals we still had only one clear winner. Bridge Addaura ASD from Italy finished 30 IMPs ahead of the world champions from Switzerland, mainly because the Swiss went down twice in grand slams not bid next door. One was on a finesse and the other had less chances. In the groups B and C the winners were the Irish and the Danish from Pharmaservice, respectively.
In the women’s event, the final itself ended in an exact tie. Because one of the teams had done better overall, they were declared winners – the simple consequence of the nowadays generally accepted tie-break rules. Thus we can congratulate the French on winning the first women’s Champions’ Cup! At a certain point in the final, the French had a clear lead but suddenly, halfway the second half, the Danish scored 34 IMPs in three boards to take over the lead. As it happened, this just was not enough. They suffered a -800 to lose most part of their lead and when they ended up in the inferior slam denomination, the tie was eventually there.
OPEN SERIES MEDALLISTS:
- BRIDGE ADDAURA ASD – Italy
Luca DE MICHELIS (pc), Massimiliano DI FRANCO, Giuseppe FAILLA, Andrea MANNO, Ron PACHTMAN, Piotr ZATORSKI, Fulvio MANNO (coach) - BRIDGE CONTACT CLUB – Switzerland
Sjoert BRINK, Bas DRIJVER, Jacek KALITA, Michal KLUKOWSKI, Michal NOWOSADZKI, Pierre ZIMMERMANN, Fernando PIEDRA (npc) - BRIDGESCANNER – Lithuania
Andrei ARLOVICH, Boguslaw GIERULSKI, Wojtek OLANSKI, Jerzy SKRZYPCZAK, Erikas VAINIKONIS, Vytautas VAINIKONIS
WOMEN SERIES MEDALLISTS:
- FRENCH CHAMPIONS – France
Margaux KUREK BEAULIEU, Anais LELEU, Carole PUILLET (pc), Sabine ROLLAND, Valerie SAUVAGE, Anne-Laure TARTARIN - ODENSE BRIDGECLUB – Denmark
Lone BILDE (playing coach), Maria DAM MORTENSEN, Leise HEMBERG (pc), Nell RINDAHL, Ella ROSTHOEJ, Julie Marina SIGSGAARD - GERMAN CHAMPIONS – Germany
Annaig DELLA MONTA, Ingrid GROMANN, Susanne KRIFTNER, Mieke PLATH, Gisela SMYKALLA, Karin WENNING