NIJMEGEN - When five out of the sixteen French participants end in the top-ten, and the other five top-ten players are Dutch, who have a much larger delegation of forty players - then who are the winners of the Cherry Blossom Tournament, which took place today in Nijmegen?

Well, the Dutch of course, since a Dutch won the event (Ans Hoogland) and a Dutch was the runner-up (Anneke Keyl). But, just like last month in Paris, it was the French  who impressed everyone.

Not only because Quentin Porcherot took the third prize (right after him: Quentin Thomas, Valérian Thomas and Nicolas Campina). But the young French  appeared to be very good, cunning and eager players.

"They play very well", said Dutch player Rudy Wong-Chung, when he looked around him after the tournament. "They are young and bright. Very good!" Then he left - he did not want to wait for the award ceremony. "I'll be the last player anyway,", he predicted. (He was right; he ended in 64th and last position, with a total of minus 134,500 minipoints.

Riichi

Just one month after Paris, the enthusiastic riichi society massively travelled to Nijmegen for the Cherry Blossom Tournament. Sixty-four players, the same number of players as in Paris, and that’s quite a lot in the riichi mahjong world, which, until recently, was a tiny community, scattered all over Europe, with some concentrations in Denmark and Holland. Not only French came to Nijmegen, but also (seven) Germans and one Englishwoman (Gemma Collinge of course, who ended on 28th position). Both tournaments show that interest in riichi is still growing.

Final results

The extra prize for the last Chang Kan (robbing the kong) was not claimed. So it went to the player with the highest score in one round, i.e. Alfonso Madruga from France. It consisted of two mini-bottles of Kaoliang mahjong liquor.