As mentioned the other day, Minnesota's own, Ben Kristensen, has been battling away in Opatija, Croatia in the Sixty World Youth Open Bridge Championship, with partner Kevin Rosenberg and teammates Cornelias Duffie and Sarah Youngquist.
The team had been doing superbly, often winning by such a large margin that opposing teams waved the white flag before the final set. Ultimately, the team faced the Netherlands team in their matches for first place overall.
Your webmaster was watching this morning; Ben & Company was continuing to do well when suddenly they hit a rough patch. In error, I thought that the set I was watching was the last - and thus was relieved to see them move into the plus column on their last hand.
As it turned out, however, they had one more set to go. That set turned into a "crush them" set. Team Sivy + B racked up double digits wins throughout - until near the end of the final match. The Netherlands scored some comebacks. Yet, as the USA team had mounted such a fierce fight earlier, even on the last board they could not lose. In fact, Ben declared a tough hand, and as he almost always does, Ben brought in his contract, gaining a small pick up.
We here in Minnesota and throughout the world are proud of Ben, of his world class partnership with Kevin and of their fine teammates, Cornelias and Sarah. Big congratulations to the team for your fine skills and non-stop pressure on the opponents.
You are worthy victors - and we look forward to many more titles in the coming years!
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