Individuals
WBF competition for individuals requires that everyone use the same bidding system, even if they play briefly with a regular partner. The stipulated system is published in advance.
These two tournaments for Individuals continue the series of World Masters Individual Championships inaugurated 1992 and contested every four years from 2000. In seven renditions no one has won either event twice. The fields are invitational rather representative. (IMSA and WBF both interpreted the 2008 medals nationally, however.)
Unusually, the Individuals in Beijing were played on two widely separated days, with one session on opening Friday and two sessions on the next Thursday, before and after five days of preliminary matches in the Teams events.
| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open Individual | Tor Helness | 58.66% | Geir Helgemo | 55.27% | Andrey Gromov | 53.75% |
| Women Individual | Catarina Midskog | 57.51% | Anne-Fréderique Lévy | 57.13% | Yan Ru | 55.10% |
- Open
There were 36 men in the Open field, including seven from host China and five from France. Tor Helness of Norway scored 58.66%, far ahead of his regular partner Geir Helgemo in second place. Helness enjoyed a big lead from the first session when he scored 62%. Helgemo was the Open winner in 1996.
- Women
There were 24 players in the Women field including six from host China. Catarina Midskog of Sweden scored 57.51% for a narrow win over Anne-Fréderique Lévy. Lévy compiled a big lead during a huge first session (69%), with the eventual gold and bronze medalists standing third and fourth. Three current members of the China national team (second at the Games) ranked fourth, seventh, and eleventh. The bronze medalist joined them for their first world championship in the 2009 Venice Cup.
Read more about this topic: Bridge At The 1st World Mind Sports Games
Famous quotes containing the word individuals:
“Society does not consist of individuals but expresses the sum of interrelations, the relations within which these individuals stand.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“It contributes greatly towards a man’s moral and intellectual health, to be brought into habits of companionship with individuals unlike himself, who care little for his pursuits, and whose sphere and abilities he must go out of himself to appreciate.”
—Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864)
“The people needed to be rehoused, but I feel disgusted and depressed when I see how they have done it. It did not suit the planners to think how they might deal with the community, or the individuals that made up the community. All they could think was, “Sweep it away!” The bureaucrats put their heads together, and if anyone had told them, “A community is people,” they would not have known what they were on about.”
—May Hobbs (b. 1938)