The “Girls” have won the World Youth Teams Championships! Jérôme Rombaut tells us everything!

This year, the 15th World Championships were held in Istanbul from 13th to 23rd August, and we can say that everything went quite well for the “Girls” of the French team and their coach, Jérôme Rombaut. Jérôme comments on this highly emotional week.

The members of our group were:
Jennifer Mourges – 23 years old, from Mont de Marsan, a bridge teacher.
Anne-Laure Tartarin – 24 years old, from Thiais, a bridge teacher.
Jessie Carbonneaux – 25 years old, from Lyon, a lawyer.
Aurélie Thizy – 25 years old, from Besançon, an actuary.
Anaïs Leleu – 17 years old, from Lille, a student at Sciences-Po Paris.
Mathilde Thuillez – 17 years old, from Paris, a first year medical student.

13 teams take part in these championships. With France, the favourites are Italy, Poland and Holland, but we are also wary of China and USA.

Our goal is to win a medal. My minimum goal is to reach the semi-final to play two nice finals.

After 3 days and 8 matches out of 13, we are in the lead with an average of 15.5 (out of 20 maximum) and already a 49-point lead for the qualification. The level of play of the 3 pairs is very good!

We have already played 4 big matches:
15/5 win over Poland – 15/5 win over Australia – 12/8 win over Italy – 11/9 win over China with an IMP score reflecting the good level of both sides, i.e. 5/3!

Unfortunately, what will happen next is less pleasant. After a draw with Norway, we are heavily defeated by Holland (5/15) and Hungary (8/12).

We will end up losing two other matches, i.e. 3/17 against USA and 5/15 against Chinese Taipei…

On our way to the quarter finals against Australia now! We will play 4 segments:
Carry-over: +6 points (following our victory in the group phase, an advantage which quickly disappeared…)
1^st: 34-38
2^nd: 14-36
3^rd: 21-28
4^th: 49-10
We catch up at the last minute in the last segment… 124-112. Win and qualification!

It will be the opposite in the semi-final against Italy:
Carry-over: +2 points
1^st: 24-16
2^nd: 58-8
3^rd: 12-33
4^th: 11-45
We keep a very small 5-point margin to finally win 107-102!.

It will be easier in the final against China:
Carry-over: +0.7 points
1^st: 32-35
2^nd: 61-15
3^rd: 41-25
4^th: 53-47
5^th: 25-36
6^th: 27-37
239.7-195 win!

Congratulations to this team which played very high-level bridge, especially in the final!

They will defend their European Champions title next July in Italy. (Unfortunately, Jessie and Aurélie won’t be part of the team anymore since they have reached the age limit.)

Jérôme Rombaut