The Egyptian Bridge Federation, under the auspices of the African Bridge Federation, ran the 8th African Bridge Championships at Sharm-elSheikh from 8 – 13 May 2015.
The South African Bridge Federation (SABF) entered two teams to represent South Africa in this event with participants from Cape Town and Johannesburg, who received South African colours from SASCOC.
The Open Team consisted of Imtiaz Kaprey, Martin Grunder, Robert Stephens and Hennie Fick; while the all-Jewish Women’s Team was represented by Maureen Narunsky, Joy Swiel, Jocelyn Ashberg, Shirley Kaminer, Charmaine Lipshitz and Renee Kenny, with nonplaying captain and coach, Tim Cope.
With only the top two teams in each section qualifying to represent Africa in the World Bridge Championships finals to be held in Chennai, India at the end of September, the pressure to finish in one of these two coveted positions was very high. The Open Team started well and maintained its consistency throughout, comfortably taking the second spot behind Egypt. However, the result for the Women’s Team was down to the wire in the very last match. By winning its final encounter against Egypt they were able to claim their silver medals and together with the Open Team will advance to represent Africa in India.
The event in India will be under the auspices of the World Bridge Federation, which is an accredited international sport federation of the IOC.
