The organizing committee of the „Baltic Times open- Connecting Countries" together with the support of the foreign ministry of affairs of Latvia have held the official opening of the connecting countries event! Neither the guests, nor the participants had a chance to experience a moment of dullness, for this years connecting countries evening was rich of entertainment for every taste and mind- the food-gourmands could enjoy the authentic Russian traditional „Maslennitsa table", with delicious „blinis" and caviar.
The cultural minded guests enjoyed the interactive cultural presentation hosted by the Russian embassy, featuring an opening speech and handing out of Russian souvenirs to all the participating teams, by the extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador of the Russian Federation Mr. Victor Kalyuzhny. Furthermore, a reflective photo exhibition „Russia Today" was held, following screening of video-materials about Moscow, performances of Russian traditional instrumental folk ensemble „Slavyane" and beautiful vocals of the Russian traditional song theatre „Eventus".
The sports-oriented guests were busy cheering for their favourite teams, adding that extra bit of team-spirit, to the close games. Most importantly, the stars of the night, that is the eleven participating members of the bowling teams representing Finnish trade guild, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Danish Chamber of Commerce, Presidents Tennis Club, the Russian Federation, the Ukraine, and China demonstrated intense competitiveness, and great sportsmanship.
The captains game resulted in Fred Kamperman, the secretary of Netherlands-Latvian Chamber of Commerce, scoring 143 points, simply winning the captain of the Finnish Trade Guild team, Janne Lehtimake, by one point!
The final first round results placed Finland as third place with a total of 799 points, Russia getting second place with 901 points. The first place cup went to the Netherlands, who showed extraordinary high scores of 932 points.
The current rating for the Grand Final follows the Netherlands in the lead, which after comes Russia, Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Russia II. However, there are four more rounds to bowl, before the Grand final, which means that there is yet much room for changes.
For full results and photos please go to www.grateka.lv and click on the Connceting Countries event.
Welcome to 2nd round of tournament on April 7!!!
