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Greetings
from the EBL President
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Exellentissimo Alcalde de Arona,
Mister President of the World Bridge Federation, Authorities,
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Arona, Tenerife, Canary
Islands for the 45th Generali European Bridge Championships.
After Sorrento, last March, we are proud to
be offer you the possibility to enjoy all together another
important European event in another marvellous place, the
Canary Islands or "The Happy Islands", as they
were called by the Romans and Greeks.
The organisation of a championship like this,
which involves for two weeks more than seven hundred players,
eighty tournament officials and around a hundred journalists,
requires very hard work and we, together with our Canarian
friends of the Organising Committee, have been working hard
on the organisation for the past year.
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With the strong support of the Canary Government,
the Tenerife Cabildo and the Ayuntamiento of Arona, we have managed
to achieve excellent results. However, when the final curtain
falls on these championships I hope that you, the real judges
of our work, will appreciate our efforts and will take good memories
of them back home with you.
I am sure, dear friends, that you will help us run
these championships in the best way possible, with your usual
fair play, behaviour, ethics and sportsmanship, and thus confirming
that the dignity which the Olympic Committee bestowed on bridge,
through its recognition, is well deserved and that we are ready
to participate in the Olympic Games together with all the other
Olympic Sports.
I trust that you will accept with patience and kindness
any possible mishaps and errors you may face and will forgive
us, remembering that only by working is it possible to make mistakes.
In any case, it is your appreciation and satisfaction that give
us the greatest gratification.
During these championships we will hold the General Assembly of
the European Bridge League. This will be the first General Assembly
in the history of the League, and it will take place as a result
of the approval of the new Statutes in Maastricht last September.
The present Executive Committee is in the middle of its term of
office, having started in Malta in 1999, and we will now have
the election of four Members of the Executive Committee.
Sabine Auken, Gianarrigo Rona (president) and Laurens
Hoedemaker |
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I wish to thank my two colleagues who have
decided not to stand for re-election for their contribution
and support in running the League and I hope to receive
their help in the future even though they will no longer
be on the Board. I know perfectly well that it is not quite
correct protocol, and I hope that our Master of Ceremonies
will forgive me, but I would like to invite up onto the
stage to receive your applause two very special people and
your great friends and mine, Sabine Auken from Germany and
Laurens Hoedemaker from the Netherlands.
I personally, and also on behalf of my colleagues
of the Executive Committee, wish to thank all the delegations
and players of the European NBOs for coming here. I wish
you all a fantastic championship and a pleasant stay in
Arona and Mare Nostrum Resort, a beautiful venue which seems
almost to have been specially built to host a bridge competition,
both for the playing sessions and leisure time. I wish you
all the best!
And now, dear friends, I am proud and honoured
to declare open the 45th Generali European Bridge Championships,
the first of the third millennium.
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