Last weekend, Bolesławiec became Poland’s true bridge capital. The 18th Bolesławiec Three-Day Sports Bridge Festival featured the Polish Team Championships and a tournament in the Polish Pairs Grand Prix series. A total of 348 players from Poland, Germany, Lithuania and Belarus took part. The matches could be watched live via the Bridge Base Online website.
The tournaments were attended, among others, by the country’s leading bridge players, including members of the Polish national team. The organizers presented traditional Bolesławiec pottery to Krzysztof Martens and Piotr Tuszyński, members of the team that won an Olympic gold medal exactly a quarter of a century ago.
The event was organized by the Bolesławiec Bridge Club. The organization was praised by Radosław Kiełbasiński, president of the Polish Bridge Federation Radosław Kiełbasiński.
The tournaments produced plenty of surprises. In the qualifying rounds of the Polish Team Championships, the team featuring Krzysztof Martens and two Bolesławiec teams were already eliminated. The winner was the Dąbrówka Starka team, whose lineup consisted of Olech Bestrzyński, Robert Nowicki, Kazimierz Omernik and Marcin Pędziński.
The Polish Grand Prix tournament was won by the pair of Marek Markowski (coach of Poland’s junior national team) and Robert Księżopolski. Jerzy Wiszniewski and Leszek Szymaniecki finished second, while Sławomir Zawiślak, a Polish national-team player, and Marek Jeleniewski took third place.
BKB Bolesławiec players also performed well in the other competitions. Andrzej Kaźmierczak and Antoni Ochot finished third in the Grand Prix MZBS Karkonosze tournament, while Lech Warężak and Wiesław Tabiszewski placed fourth in the Lower Silesia Grand Prix tournament.
The event received funding from the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Bolesławiec County and the Municipality of Bolesławiec. The Inter-School Sports Centre and the Municipal Sports and Recreation Centre in Bolesławiec co-organized the event.
(BKB/ii information)