by South
Q 9 4
 9
 K Q J 9 6 5
 9 5 2 |
||
| J 7 3
A J 10 8 4 2
2
K 8 7 |
6 5
K 7 3
A 10 8 7 4
10 6 3 |
|
| A K 10 8 2
Q 6 5
3
A Q J 4 |
J and Ace.
East unwisely chose the 10 as his return – high to indicate his K – and Cichy was quick to capitalize and I mean quick. With a raised eyebrow and a kindly smile in East’s direction (and in less time than it took to add up his points) Cichy had trumped this with K, laid down A and played 2 towards dummy’s 9. West’s J was extracted and now declarer could enjoy four discards on dummy’s now established suit.
South’s hearts and 4 disappeared, East wished he could too and all that remained was to concede a club to West’s King. Cichy notched a 66% session to put himself on top, a position he never let go of, despite a strong challenge from his compatriot, Patryk Patreuha who ended up collecting the silver medal.
Cichy took home two gold medals (U21 teams gold and individual) and a silver in the triathlon, outdone only by his partner in the teams, Kacper Kopka with three golds.
Kopka also won the pairs with Tomasz Kielbasa with a massive 65% over three sessions and the overall triathlon. With Cichy and Kopka still only 18 and the Patreuha twins 20, I look forward to watching them for many years to come but they can not afford to be complacent – the Poles had five finalists at Under 21 level, the Chinese had eleven (out of 24 total).
The overall numbers were excellent: only slightly down overall from Lyon two years ago but most encouraging of all was that at Under 16 the numbers had increased – the U16 final had twenty-one Chinese and three Polish youngsters.
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