For the second year in a row the four neighbouring countries of Sweden, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands have challenged each other in a final test before the European Championships at the end of June. The tournament takes place in Copenhagen at the Radisson Blu Scandinavia Hotel from 25th-27th of April.
The Danish, Swedish and German open teams are represented by the same players who are on the teams for the EC in Opatija; however as a consequence of the absence of Brink and Drijver, the line up of the Dutch open team is still a mystery. This weekend three of the pairs in contention for two spots (Muller-De Wijs are already on the team) get their last chance to prove themselves. The pairs in contention are:
Joris van Lankveld – Berend van den Bos (world junior champions in 2012)
Ricco van Prooijen – Louk Verhees (World champions in 2011)
Magdalena Ticha – Richard Ritmeijer (bronze medalists in the World Transnational teams in Bali 2013)
Besides the Dutch open stars, among others the Swedish World Champions Peter Bertheau-Per-Ola Cullin and Fredrik Nyström-Johan Upmark will participate, as will the stars of the German open team Roy Welland-Sabine Auken.
Within the women, Germany was not able to send a team and have been replaced by the Israeli women, who will be among the contestants for the qualifying spots for the next Venice Cup along with Sweden and Denmark, whereas the Dutch women team with Marion Michielsen-Meike Wortel will probably dream of medals of a higher caliber than their bronze medal in the Venice Cup in Bali.
There will be massive BBO-coverage with webcams accompanying the transmissions. Tune in Friday night at 19:00 CET for the warm-up IMP pairs and Saturday from 11:00 CET as the tête-a-têtes begin.
As a special gadget, the BBO-operators have made a presentation of all teams and players as well as a schedule of which pairs and matches are transmitted on BBO. See pictures of the participating players and when you need to log on to BBO to watch your personal favourites http://livebridge.net/bbo/event.php?eventid=1021
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Christina Lund Madsen