Sport - Bridge

India struggles to be in top four

Chennai: The Indian open team had a comparatively poor fourth day in the Beijing Bridge Olympiad, but still managed to hold on to the third position in Group-B.

It began the day losing to Russia 7-23 mainly because of two six clubs contracts. In one of them which was bid brilliantly by Chokshi-Venkataraman, in play Venkataraman took the wrong option of the two available to him and went down one.

In the other, again the same partnership bid easily up to the five clubs level and after a lot of consideration stopped there. Six clubs was making. Both slams were not even tried in the other room.

In the afternoon India recovered somewhat by winning against French Polynesia but faltered in the last match against lowly placed San Marino drawing 15-15. The Indians now have a tally of 222 vps.

India plays Sweden and second placed The Netherlands (224) on Wednesday, Thursday is an off day and on Friday, the final day of the round robin, India should have a comparatively easier time, drawn to play Mexico, Latvia and Portugal.

With the senior team continuing with its seventh position with four more rounds to go, the Indian Youth team has now slipped to the 14th position after having been second at one stage on Monday in the 74 country field.

The top four in each group (open event): Group-A: Italy (247), Estonia (220), Denmark (215.5), South Africa (204).