World Junior Pairs Championship

The first official world champions, Geir Helgemo and Boye Brogeland of Norway, were the most successful in Open play through 2011. Helgemo had already played on Norway's second-place open team in 1993, and both would play in the Bermuda Bowls 1997 to 2007, as Norway placed third, fourth, second, fourth, out of the money, and finally first.[7]

For the first rendition as a WBF event, European pairs held the first 44 places, except only one France—Guadeloupe pair in 25th place.

Year, Site, Entries		Medalists
1995[8] Ghent, Belgium 154 pairs	1.	Boye Brogeland	Geir Helgemo
	2.	Thomas Charlsen	Espen Erichsen
	3.	Mik Kristensen	Morten Lund Madsen
1997[9] Santa Sofia, Italy 156 pairs	1.	Stefan Solbrand	Olle Wademark
	2.	Mette Drøgemüller	Sebastian Reim
	3.	Boye Brogeland	Trond Hantveit
1999[10] Nymburk, Czech Republic 186 pairs	1.	Andreas Gloyer	Bernd Saurer
	2.	Félicien Daux	Julien Geitner
	3.	Bernardo Biondo	Francesco Mazzadi
2001[11] Stargard, Poland 220 pairs	1.	Andreas Gloyer	Martin Schifko
	2.	Sjoert Brink	Bas Drijver
	3.	Fabio Lo Presti	Francesco Mazzadi
2003[12] Tata, Hungary 189 pairs*	1.	Adi Azizi	Yuval Yener
	2.	Guillaume Grenthe	Jérôme Grenthe
	3.	Bas Drijver	Bob Drijver
2006[13] Piešťany, Slovakia   142 pairs	1.	Cecilia Rimstedt	Sara Sivelind
	2.	Jacek Kalita	Krzysztof Kotorowicz
	3.	Marion Michielsen	Vincent de Pagter
After 2006 the European Youth Pairs resumed as a distinct meet conducted in even years.
Beginning 2009 the World Youth Pairs became part of a "Youth Congress" including teams events.
2009[14][15] Istanbul, Turkey 94 pairs	1.	Marion Michielsen	Tim Verbeek
	2.	Adam Krysa	Justyna Zmuda
	3.	Aymeric Lebatteux	Nicolas Lhuissier
2011[2] Opatija, Croatia 61 pairs	1.	Berend van den Bos	Joris van Lankveld
	2.	Aymeric Lebatteux	Simon Poulat
	3.	Marius Agica	Radu Nistor
2013[16] Atlanta, USA 32 pairs	1.	Massimiliano Di Franco	Gabriele Zanasi
	2.	Erkmen Aydogdu	Akin Koclar
	3.	Alex Prairie	Sylvia Shi

*The 2003 field of 189 pairs included the under-21 stratum covered below.

After 2006 the European Youth Pairs Championships were rejuvenated as a separate event, contested in even-number years, now restricted to European national pairs (two players from the same EBL member). European pairs had won all of the medals in six renditions of the world event, with only one transnational pair among the 18 medalists (1997 silver), and they have continued to win at the world level. [17]

The "World" event is now contested in odd years at the World Youth Bridge Congress.

Officially the 2006 and 2009 events are now the 6th and 7th in the Junior MP Pairs series. The 2009 events were reported as part of the "1st World Youth Congress",[15] much as the 2008 and 2010 events were reported as part of the 1st World Mind Sports Games and the World Bridge Series.

[quote] The 1st World Youth Bridge Congress was held in Istanbul, Turkey, from 15 to 23 August 2009, hosted at the Yeditepe University. Young players from all member countries of the World Bridge Federation were invited to participate in this new competition, designed to be a massive event. Accordingly, transnational combinations were allowed in all events, and there were no restrictions on the number of players who could participate from any single country.

The new congress included various teams and pairs competitions. Teams were played according to the Swiss format, as well as Board-A-match. There were Match Point and IMP pairs. The championships were open to players born in 1984 or later (Under-26), while it was intended that players born in 1989 or later would form a separate category (Under-21) in all events, if the entry was sufficient.

The World Youth Pairs Championships have been discontinued, as they are now included in the World Youth Congress.[15]

The 2003 "Schools" medalists were the highest ranking eligible pairs in the unified field. They ranked 5, 21, and 37 among the 189 Juniors pairs from 27 countries.[6] About one quarter of the field was eligible for the Schools medals.[18]

In 2006 there were 210 Juniors pairs from 34 countries in 5 of 8 world zones. The Schools pairs competed separately for the first time, which the WBF calls the first championship in its Youngsters category. Six of the top twelve pairs were from Poland including the gold and silver medalists.[18]

Year, Site, Entries		Medalists
2003[6] Tata, Hungary	1.	Jacco Hop	Vincent de Pagter
	2.	Agustin Madala	Shivam Shah
	3.	Jean-Francois Grias	Romain Tembouret
2006[18] Piešťany, Slovakia   68 pairs	1.	Bartlomiej Igla	Artur Machno
	2.	Andrzej Bernatowicz	Jan Betley
	3.	Pierre Franceschetti	Andrea Landry
2009, Istanbul (evidently there were too few under-21 entries)
2011, Opatija (evidently there were too few under-21 entries)
2013[16] Atlanta, USA 40 pairs	1.	Allison Hunt	Asya Ladyzhensky
	2.	Andrew Jeng	Richard Jeng
	3.	Tianyi Jin	Kai Jin
2013 12 girls pairs	1.	Giorgia Botta	Margherita Chavarria
	2.	Karla De Jesus	Adriana Suarez
	3.	Julie Arbit	Isha Thapa

Contemporary reporting calls the Schools stratum in 2003 and Schools flight in 2006 successful, with 40-odd and 68 participants.[18] Yet WBF lists only the single official rendition in 2006.[13] The 2009 Congress homepage implies that entries by Youngsters must have been too few.[15]

With merely 61 entries, the 2011 Junior Pairs is smaller than the separate event for Youngsters in 2006, when the two flights saw 142 and 68 pairs.