New Delhi, 19 April

India won three gold medals and a silver in the Bridge Federation of Asia and Middle East tournament in Dubai with the medal-winning teams qualifying for the next world championships.

The Indian men, women and seniors teams clinched gold while the mixed team won silver in the tournament held between 10-18 April under the auspices of the World Bridge Federation.

All four Indian teams qualified for the 47th world bridge championships to be held in Herning, Denmark from  20-31 August.

The 2025 World Bridge Championships will include the Bermuda Bowl, Venice Cup, D'Orsi Trophy, and Wuhan Cup.

India will be among 66 teams from 35 nations taking part in the championships.

The Indian men's team that won gold included Sumit Mukherjee and Rajeshwar Tewari; Sagnik Roy and Kaustabh Nandi; Kaustubh Milind Bendre and Sayantan Kushari. The coach and non-playing captain was Debasish Ray.

The members of the women's team that won the yellow metal were Puja Batra and Asha Sharma; Bindiya Kohli and Priya Balasubramanian; Bharati Dey and Alka M Kshirsagar. The coach and non-playing captain was Arvind Vaidya.

The members of the seniors' team that won the gold were Ramaratnam Krishnan and B Prabhakar; Bachiraju Satyanarayana and Jaggy B Shivdasani; Subhash Gupta and Ravi Goenka. The coach and non-playing captain was Girish Bijoor.

The members of the silver medal-winning mixed team were Rajeev Khandelwal and Himani Khandelwal; Rana Roy and Sheetal Bansal; Priya Ranjan Sinha and Bindiya Naidoo. The coach and non-playing captain was Vinay Desai.

The sports ministry has been supporting the Bridge Federation of India since 2017. The ministry's Annual Calendar for Training and Competition (ACTC) covers expenses for training camps, overseas competition, coaches' expenses and equipment among others.

Players at senior, junior, and sub-junior levels are included. An average of Rs 2.55 crore per annum have been spent by the ministry on bridge in the last three years.