19 Oct 2015

The Botswana Bridge Federation (BBF) will send a team of pairs to the biennial Youth Paris Open Bridge tournament.

The tournament, hosted in the French capital Paris under the auspices of the French Bridge Federation, will on its second edition and is expected to draw at least 23 countries from around the world with Botswana being the only participant from south of the Sahara. 

The World Bridge Federation sanctioned tournament is reserve for young players under 26 years.

The Botswana team is expected to open their account with Netherlands and the pairs of Glod Maele, Tebogo Kubanji and Mbakisi Malilo with Prince Ramoseki will carry the nation’s hope at the bidding tables. The pairs will also face tough opposition from other world bridge powerhouses such as Uruguay, Germany, Czech Republic and Spain amongst others. 

Botswana made its maiden appearance at the tournament in 2013 but Nelson Chaka, Nitlas, Maele and Kubanji finished on the 19th spot from the 26 countries that took part then. 

The BBF youth structures have been hailed as a success story by the continent’s bridge governing body. In a recent interview with BOPA at the 8th African Bridge championships in Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt, African Bridge Federation (ABF) President Bernard Pascal said it was interesting to see how a country where bridge was unknown in the past few years was able to develop strong minded young players who had an ambition to reach professional levels.

Pascal explained that Botswana has achieved so much that no one has ever achieved since ABF set objectives for grass root bridge development in the continent. 

The BBF may also get a short in the arm as Pascal promised to appeal to the Youth Commission of the world bridge governing body World Bridge Federation (WBF) to finance development of young bridge players in Botswana. He is expected to visit Botswana when he travels to South Africa to attend the 9th edition of the ABF championships to be hosted there in 2017. Ends