LAHORE, March 22: The pair of Javed Khalid-Saeed Akhtar edged past Mohsin Chandna-Tehsin Gheewala to emerge as the winners of the 12th Balijee international bridge championship’s pair event at the Lahore Gymkhana on Saturday.

Meanwhile the pair of Nelofar Aslam and Najm Abid stole the limelight with 913 Match Points (MP) in the women’s contest.Scoring 1018 MPs, Javed and Saeed, the fanciful pair from Islamabad, played emphatically enough to suppress the winning chances of their rivals from Karachi, Mohsin Chandna and Tehseen Gheewala, who finishing eight points behind them, claimed the runners-up position.

Javed Ahmed-Tahir Masood, a pair from the national team, scored 991 MPs to seize the third spot. Sapan Desai from India, pairing with Mubashir Puri from Karachi, made a last minute dash to join the prize winning group. They aggregated 983 MPs for the fourth position, over the notable Indian pair of Subhash Gupta-Venkatraman, who finished fifth with 958 MPs. It was the first time that no Indian pair won any of the top positions in the pair’s event.

Top ten position holders: (1) Javed Khaled-Saeed Akhtar 1018, (2) Mohsin Chandna-Tehsin Gheewala 1010, (3) Javed Ahmed-Tahir Masud 991, (4) Mubashir Puri-Sappan Desai 983, (5) Venkatraman-Subhash Gupta 958, (6) A. Rehman Allana-Sarfraz Khan 950, (7) Tahir Abbas-Ali Abbas 949, (8) Shahid Aziz-Maj Hasnat 939, (9) Shahab Sarki-Anisur Rehman 923 and (10) Hasan Jawad-Rashidul Ghazi 919.

The pair of Nelofar Aslam-Najm Abid were just superb among the women. They won the top prize in the ladies’ section, scoring 913 MPs. Riffi-Khaleda, who were leading most of the time, underwent some unusual setbacks towards the end as a result of which they had to be content with the second slot with a score of 892. Shahanaz-Elizabeth scored 824 MPs for the third position and Teeta Agha-Abeda Ali finished fourth with a score of 791 followed by Farida Ahmed-Goga Saeed (774) and Tahira-Fehmida (772).The team event commenced soon after the end of the pair event.

Candyland with 102 points were leading the table at the end of the day, when five out of the total 10 rounds had been completed. The Avengers with 101 points and Anis V with 96 are on second and third position.

The Candyland team, comprising Mohammad Ismail, Khalid Moinuddin, Mubashir Puri, Hamid Moinuddin, Ziaullah Baig and Sapan Desai were simply stunning.

The all-women team The Avengers, comprising Najam Abid, Neelofar Aslam, Teeta Agha and Abida Ali, also put on an extremely outstanding performance.