On October 20-24, the final of the National Youth Olympics in indoor sports took place in Lublin. The five-person CKiS team did a medal, and even – 3 medals!
The heroes of both tournaments of Boys Pairs
(for maximum and average record) and the entire competition were Łukasz Kasperczyk and Michał Stasik, who finished both competitions with a clear advantage, although they debuted in the Olympics final as the youngest. They reached their maxes of 65.35% (from 66 hands; nearly 4% advantage over the next duo), on imps +154.14 (over 20 imps). The most dangerous rivals of Łukasz and Michał were other representatives of Małopolska! The highest silver medals were won by: Aron Shindler (Synergia Cracovia) and Przemysław Pasiński (CM Jordan Kraków), and for imps – another of ours – Konrad Ciborowski (CKiS Skawina) together with Bartosz Żbik (CM Jordan Kraków).
The girls (Łucja Ciborowska and Kinga Kowal), who failed to reach the podium in any of the tournaments, fell slightly below expectations. It was close to the max, where they finished fourth. In the tournament, the average score was two points lower.
The coach’s eye:
To be honest, I did not expect such successes. Our entire squad consists of 16-year-olds, so the youngest players in the “Olympic” category, making their debut at this event, among the older team, mostly colleagues. What Michał and Łukasz did by winning both tournaments, I think will go down in the history of the Olympics. And the style they triumphed in was basically a knockout. We are also happy with the silver medal of Konrad, who got to the finals through the kitchen door, because, unable to take part in the qualifying round himself, he replaced him at the last minute as a reserve player who “landed” in quarantine. But I really counted on more in the girls’ tournaments. It seemed to me that in the case of Kinga and Łucja, the age would not matter, because both of them had many years of experience, including international events. Meanwhile, something was missing in both competitions. Especially the beginning of each tournament was weak, and it is known that not only in bridge, but in every race, it is easier to defend a position in the lead than to attack it. Overall, however, the start of our five is no different, but only five!
Marcin Kuflowski
