The Caribbean competitive bridge community is buzzing with excitement following a standout performance from Saint Lucia’s national delegation at the 36th annual Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Bridge Championships, held earlier this week at Roseau, Dominica’s iconic Fort Young Hotel. The 10-member team from Saint Lucia turned in a historic showing, claiming six podium placements across five event categories, with three first-place titles to its name.
Over three days of tightly contested, strategic competition, Saint Lucia’s athletes asserted clear dominance over the tournament’s pairs divisions, claiming four of the six available trophies and locking in both first and second place in both pairs events. In the tournament’s most highly anticipated division, the OECS Pairs, Saint Lucia’s Jackie Theodore and Ian Hippolyte secured the top spot on the podium, followed by compatriots John Lewis and Naomi Patrick-Smith in second, with a pair from Martinique finishing third to round out the ranking.
In the Open Pairs competition, the order shifted slightly, but Saint Lucia still locked out the top two positions: Lewis and Patrick-Smith claimed gold, while Irvin Smith and Dexter Theodore took silver. A Martinique pairing once again earned third place in this event.
Saint Lucia’s winning streak continued into the Open Teams division, where the four-person squad of Theodore, Hippolyte, Nannette Reyes and Monique Devaux-Lovell claimed first place, outperforming squads from Martinique and host nation Dominica, which took second and third respectively. In the parallel OECS Teams event, Martinique claimed the gold medal, while Saint Lucia’s second team, made up of Smith, Victor Theodore, Patrick-Smith and Lewis, finished with silver.
The only event where Saint Lucia failed to earn a podium placement was the Swiss Teams division, where host Dominica turned in a strong performance to claim both first and third place.
Following the tournament, the Saint Lucia Bridge Association, which organized the 10-member delegation’s trip to Dominica, issued a public statement thanking its key sponsors for their support. Major backers included the country’s Ministry of Youth and Sports, Republic Bank, and the Saint Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association, whose contributions made the team’s participation and successful run possible.