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Tatiana Dikhnova and Tatiana Ponomareva of Moscow won the Whitehead Women’s Pairs on Wednesday. They finished almost half a board ahead of Peggy Sutherlin and Ellen Hessell of Texas.
It was Dikhnova’s first NABC win and Ponomareva’s fourth, with two in the Smith Life Master Women’s Pairs and one in the Machlin Women’s Swiss Teams.
The Russians were fourth after qualifying with scores of 56.13% and 61.82% on Tuesday. They took the lead in the first final session with a 57.28% and finished with their weakest score, 52.51%, in the last session.
They had been in a similar position this spring in Philadelphia in the Smith when they were third after the third session but had a bad last session and fell out of contention.
“I was afraid it would be the same. This is better,” Dikhnova said. “Yesterday my partner felt very good and I didn’t, but we still scored 61%. In the last session we each felt good but didn’t play well, but it was enough.”
Barbara Heller and Sharon Anderson finished third.