FERGANI

Twelve CNTC Championship titles are owned by this team of Canadian superstars. In 2000, Fergani won with a similar team (Kamel Fergani, Nicolas L'Ecuyer, Douglas Fraser, Jurek Czyzowicz) but instead of Mike Hargreaves-Boris Baran there was Darren Wolpert - Jeffrey Blond. The addition of Hargreaves and Baran added two experienced individuals with 8 CNTC titles between them. Jurek's usual partner is Wolpert, so he will be paired with Baran, while Hargreaves plays with Fraser. A team of young and old talent, FERGANI has a more than 50% chance of bringing home yet another championship.

MAKSYMETZ

This 4-man squad from BC shares 9 previous CNTC wins between them. Most notably those of Allan Graves who has won the CNTC 5 times including the first ever CNTC Championship in 1980 (on a team with George Mittelman, Eric Kokish, Peter Nagy, Eric Murray, and Sami Kehela). McOrmond-Jacob are long-time partners with an elaborate system most of which must be genetically encoded by now. While they have never won a CNTC together (this would be Jacob's first) they won the NAOP FLT A a few years back and have had many other successes.

Interesting to note it looks like Hargreaves has jumped ship - both his previous wins (1987, 1988) were playing with this team - and partnering Gord McOrmond. I won't raise any spectres here by trying to guess the reason. In any case, it should make for a very high-energy matchup this year.

How wonderful that we have the opportunity to see these great players match wits. And we can watch it all on the LIVE vu-graph. Click Here for info on how to see it.

NOTE; The winners of the 2002 CNTC and the winners of the 2003 CNTC will play off to decide Canada's representative to the 2003 Bermuda Bowl. The team that loses this playoff will receive a $6,000 cash prize. The winner of the 2004 CNTC will be the team that will be eligible to be named as Canada's representative to the 2004 World Team Olympiad. Previously, problems arose from selecting our international representatives nearly a year in advance of the International Competition to which they are eligible to attend. This change has been made in order to address these concerns. After 2003, when a team wins the CNTC they will be attending the World event shortly thereafter.

Dan Jacob

Gord McOrmond

Allan Graves

Bryan Maksymetz