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Congratulations!
Italy and Israel the New Champions
Italy Juniors, npc Gianpaolo
Rinaldi, coach Andrea Pagani, Furio di Bello, Stelio di
Bello, Ruggiero Guariglia, Francesco Mazzadi, Fabio lo
Presti, Stefano Uccello |
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Israel, npc Yaniv Zack,
Eliran Argelasi, Eran Assaraf, Ory Assaraf, Lotan Fisher,
Idan Grunbaum, Gilad Ofir |
Italy won the Junior Euopean Team
Championship today. Early in their final match against
Norway the Italians trailed by 25 IMPs but they held
their collective nerve to come back to win by 41-32 IMPs,
17-13 VPs, to assure the gold medal, irrespective of results
in other matches.
In a dramatic finish, Denmark snatched
the silver medal thanks to a 23-7 victory over Russia,
with Norway taking the bronze. France lost their
last match 11-19 against Sweden to finish just half-a-VP
behind Norway. If a fifth European team gets a place
in next year's World Championships in Beijing, it will be
Poland, who took fourth place ahead of England.
In the Schools, Israel's
morning maximum against England put them in a strong
position going into the final round. Thought they trailed
Poland by 5 VPs, Israel had to play near-bottom-placed
Scotland in the final round, while Poland faced third-placed
Netherlands. Sure enough, Netherlands held the Poles,
losing only by 13-17, and Israel's 25-4 win over Scotland
earned them the Schools European Team Championship
and the gold medal. Norway took the bronze, overtaking
Netherlands thanks to a 24-6 last round victory over Germany.
Scotland's 4 VPs against Israel just held off Wales
so that the Welsh had to take last place.
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The 18th European Youth Team Championships
was held in Torquay, England, from
7 to 17 July 2002.
The event comprised a Junior series (for
players born in 1977 or later) and a Schools series (for
players born in 1982 or later). It was open to national teams of
the EBL member countries and was organized by the European Bridge
League in cooperation with the English Bridge Union.
The Championship is the flagship of the EBL youth
programme. It was inaugurated in 1968 in Prague (Juniors only),
and since then has been held regularly every two years. The Schools
series was added in 1994 to accommodate younger players coming out
of national bridge programmes for school children.
The 17th
event of the series was organized in July 2000 in Antalya, Turkey.
The reigning champions are Norway
in the Junior series and Poland
in the Schools. Thus, the list of past winners reads:
|
Year
|
Venue
|
Junior winner
|
Schools winner
|
|
1968
|
Prague, Czech Republic |
Sweden |
no competition held
|
|
1970
|
Dublin, Ireland |
Denmark |
|
1972
|
Delft, The Netherlands |
Poland |
|
1974
|
Copenhagen, Denmark |
Sweden |
|
1976
|
Lund, Sweden |
Austria |
|
1978
|
Stirling, Scotland |
Great Britain |
|
1980
|
Tel Aviv, Israel |
Norway |
|
1982
|
Salsomaggiore, Italy |
Poland |
|
1984
|
Hasselt, Belgium |
France |
|
1986
|
Budapest, Hungary |
The Netherlands |
|
1988
|
Plovdiv, Bulgaria |
France |
|
1990
|
Neumünster, Germany |
Norway |
|
1992
|
Palaiseau, France |
Italy |
|
1994
|
Papendal, The Netherlands |
Great Britain |
France |
|
1996
|
Cardiff,
Wales |
Norway |
Germany |
|
1998
|
Vienna,
Austria |
Italy |
Italy |
|
2000
|
Antalya,
Turkey |
Norway |
Poland |
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