The Finals (34)

Gold Category: Without meaning to be disrespectful, none of the 'top' players who were expected to take home a medal, did. Backgammon Grandmaster, John Clark came in at 16th with one win .... and that was a bye! John Slattery was one below him at 17th, Graham Brittain fared a little better with 2 wins 13th, which left John Broomfield at 8th with 2 wins and, the best 'top' player, Brian Lever missing out at 4th with 3 wins. So, who won what?

Gold medalist Peter Bennet

Silver medalist George Christofides

Bronze medalist Helen Helm-Sagar

Well, at 3rd was Helen Helm-Sagar, winning her second Bronze (Weekend 1, 1999); just edging ahead of Brian on count back of opponent's wins by just two points. In 2nd place after a Gold/Silver playoff was George Christofides adding a Silver to the 1998 Weekend Gold already on his mantelpiece; and in 1st place winning his first ever Olympiad medal, Peter Bennet finally struck Gold.

Many congratulations to Peter on a fine effort and I'm sure he'll soon be adding other medals to accompany his Gold.

Silver Category: It almost looked as if Jac Arama or Francine Brandler would secure a medal in the Silver Category but they didn't reckon on Tom Townsend and Ramin Foulad. Tom emerged to take the Silver medal with Ramin the Bronze. Ramin's medal victory was poetic as his brother Afshin and good friend Shidan Shabrokh both qualified for the Gold Category on their first attempt and Ramin, try as he might, just couldn't squeeze out a 3rd win to do the same all week. But now, he takes home a medal whilst the other two look on with longing.

Bronze Category: With just three entrants going for the one medal I made this a Round Robin tournament. The three were Michael Creswell, Thorsten Cmiel and Simon Gasquoine. Michael was unable to secure any victories, Thorsten managed one but Simon won the Bronze with victories over both of them.

I had a few complaints about the format (4 x 7-point matches) from players already in the tournament but by this time it was too late to have any affect. If you enter a tournament knowing what the format is, why complain? Surely the fact that you have entered would suggest an acceptance of the format? Strangely the complaints came from players who had lost two or more matches and were therefore unable to win any medals. Do you think I would have heard any complaints had they won all their matches? I don't. Simon Gasquoine. Emulating Mahmoud Jahanbani (1998), with his two medals; Silver & Bronze

Mind you, I do agree with them! There are too many qualifying days and not enough time for a meaningful, long-pointer final. Next year will be different (using my 100% hindsight and clairvoyance skills again!) with perhaps 2/3 days qualifying and two days for the finals. I am sure this format will be more popular.

Tomorrow (Saturday) sees the start of the British Open. This promises to be interesting as I understand we are to share the hall with the Times Crossword puzzlers who are expecting a nice quiet atmosphere! Obviously they don't play backgammon, do they?

Here are the Olympiad Championship full results.

See British Open prospects here or take a look back at the 1999 Open.