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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. | |