This year, the USBF refused to send a team to the world University Bridge Championships because it partially overlapped with the NABC. It was July 10-15 while the NABC was July 12-22. Instead, they sent 2 teams each in the U21 and U26 divisions of the World Youth Congress. I was not pleased with this and the people in charge got an earful (or rather, emails full) of complaints from me. Next year the world youth championships run concurrently with the summer NABC. Is the USBF going to refuse to send teams to that? Based on the logic they used in 2012, they absolutely would not but both events are in Atlanta so of course they're going to enter teams.
There really isn't enough depth in junior bridge for 4 teams plus a girls team. However the USA2 teams did respectably in China last month. The U21 USA1 team, comprised of 2 Zacks, 2 Adams and 2 Jengs, brought back a silver medal. Yay!
Then there's the team that competed in the girls division. Apparently no one is happy with how the teams were selected. There may or may not have been an online trial to choose the 6 players and it wound up being whoever had the most political pull. I mean, 4 of the 6 totally deserved to be on the team, albeit one of them only moved to the US a year ago Sonora debatable whether she should be eligible to compete for the USA. Mili Raina still is the best female junior bridge player that no one knows about. I guess if the selection process goes like this next time, I'll have to intervene and make sure the people in charge know that she (and Asya) deserve strong consideration.
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The World Youth Congress will be concurrent with the NABC. As I understand it, any youth team can enter the World Youth Bridge Congress championships so selection is by USBF is not required. The teams can be transnational. You can check with Chris Compton -- he gave 2 presentations at our district and MABC meetings in Atlanta on the WYBC next year.
ReplyDeleteYes, that is true but the usbf is surely going to pay for a few teams to go there, thereby disallowing them from playing in the nabc, which is contradictory to their stance this year.
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