KARACHI, Nov 1: Pakistan moved into second phase in the ongoing World Bridge Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey, after a gruelling journey, according to information provided by Pakistan Bridge Federation on Monday.

The team comprising Jane Alam Fazli, A. Rehman Allana, Khurshid Hadi, Kemal Shoaib, Rashid Jafer and Sarfraz Khan remained in the mainstream throughout the first phase but improved after each tough match. They finally qualified with third position in a house of 18 teams.

All 73 teams were placed in four groups. Four teams from each group were taken for the second phase which was a knock-out round. England were leading in Group C and pitted against Pakistan who are in Group D.

Pakistan, facing a strong side, performed much better and in the first four segments had almost demoralized the stronger side. Pakistan have defeated England 46-32, 33-06, 47-41, and 52-23 IMPs.

The match between Japan and Egypt was the toughest. It proved to be the closest match when Japan finished with 4 IMPs advantage. Results were 47-36, 28-63, 40-20 and 47-40 IMPs.

Two hot favourites Italy and USA fought a hard battle. USA, having Zia Mahmood and Micheal Rosenberg succeeded to outplay the runners-up of the World Bridge Championship with a small margin of 16 IMPs. Scores of the four segments were 16-11, 27-54, 27-4and 52-60 IMPs.

Pakistan women team is now out of contention. They took a fine start against leaders of their group China, but it ended in a draw, both team sharing 30 VPs. They won against Canada 23-7 but were virtually outclassed by Brazil 25-01, which forced them to finish 17th out of 22 teams.

There was no knock-out phase for the seniors. Pakistan seniors comprising Tariq Rasheed Khan, Hasan Akhter Zaidi, M.A Ansari, Pervaiz Mirza and Rashidul Ghazi started their last three sessions on 11th position and finished on 10th.

In their last three matches, Pakistan seniors lost to Germany 25-5 and Canada 19-11. By any standard, the performance of Pakistan seniors could be judged as above average. The team finished 10th out of 29 teams.-APP