Indians win big at Bridge meet, qualify for worlds

New Delhi

India had a dream run at the Bridge Federation of Asia and Middle East tournament in Dubai, bagging three gold medals and a silver. This outstanding performance secured all four Indian teams a place at the 47th World Bridge Championships in Herning, Denmark, from August 20 to 31.

The Indian men’s, women’s, and seniors’ teams all clinched gold, while the mixed team earned silver. With these results, they will compete in global events like the Bermuda Bowl, Venice Cup, D'Orsi Trophy, and Wuhan Cup.

The men’s gold-winning team featured Sumit Mukherjee, Rajeshwar Tewari, Sagnik Roy, Kaustabh Nandi, Kaustubh Bendre, and Sayantan Kushari. The women’s champions included Puja Batra, Asha Sharma, Bindiya Kohli, Priya Balasubramanian, Bharati Dey, and Alka M Kshirsagar. The seniors’ team consisted of Ramaratnam Krishnan, B Prabhakar, Bachiraju Satyanarayana, Jaggy Shivdasani, Subhash Gupta, and Ravi Goenka.

The silver-winning mixed team included Rajeev and Himani Khandelwal, Rana Roy, Sheetal Bansal, Priya Ranjan Sinha, and Bindiya Naidoo.

Coaches Debasish Ray, Arvind Vaidya, Girish Bijoor, and Vinay Desai guided the teams.

The Indian government has supported bridge since 2017, with an annual average of ₹2.55 crore allocated to training, competitions, and resources under the sports ministry’s ACTC scheme.