Khurshid Hadi, Kemal Shoaib win pairs event at UAE National Day Bridge Festival

KARACHI: The battle-hardened duo of Khurshid Hadi and Kemal Shoaib made Pakistan proud yet again by clinching the pairs event in the 6th UAE National Day Bridge Festival 2019 in Dubai.

Having earned glories for the country on a number of occasions in the past, the stalwarts reproduced their top form to emerge as the worthy winners after three days of suspense, thrill and drama on the table. They washed away every challenge and claimed the top title and also a purse of $3,000 plus a trophy.

It may be recalled that last year it was the Pakistani pair of Anwer Kizilbash and Yousuf Jan Muhammed who won the title in what has come to be regarded as the premier bridge event of the UAE featuring the top performers of the region.

Khurshid and Kemal annexed the title with their aggregate of 3436.70 Match Points which gave them a winning score of 181.83 percent. The pair of Imran Abedi from Pakistan and Samuel Jacobs from Kuwait were the runners-up with 3394.60 MPs which gave them a score of 179.61 percent.

The Pakistan pair of Gulzar Bilal and Shaikh Abdul Muqeet came fifth with an aggregate of 3221.80 MPs giving them a score of 170.46 percent.

Ahmed Abdul Hameed and Nasir Khan finished 10th with a tally of 3153.60 MPs which earned them a score of 166.86 percent.

The other Pakistani participants in the pairs event were Hasnat Mahmood-Kashif Ali (16th), Mirza Shauq Hussain-Saeed Akhtar (28th), Rubina Agha-Munir Ataullah (29th), Yasser Rahim-Arslan Mansur (32nd), Anwer Kizilbash-Shahin Iqbal (42nd), Masood Mazhar-Kamran Ibrahim (45th), Shakeel Chandna-Asghar Abbas (50th), Khalid Mohiuddin-Hasan Askari (56th), Ishraf Hussain-Shameem Hyder (66th) and Pervaiz Mirza-Azhar Hameed (71st).