European Universities Badminton Championship 2013

Opening Ceremony – welcome address by Mr Pavletic, EUSA EC Member

UPPSALA – The 9th European Universities Badminton Championship was held in Uppsala, Sweden on 5-11 May 2013. The Championship is also one of the events organised in Sweden in 2013, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Swedish University Sports Federation (SAIF).

More than 130 participants from 29 Universities from 13 countries took part in this year’s edition of EUC Badminton. 15 teams from 10 countries entered the team event, played in Sudirmancup format.

The Opening Ceremony of the 2013 European Universities Badminton Championship took place on 6 May in Uppsala at Fyrishov arena. The Ceremony was attended by Mr Peter Egardt, governor of Uppsala county, Mr Fredrik Ahlstedt, mayor of Uppsala and Mrs Lena Andersson Eklund, pro vice-chancellor Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

On behalf of the Organising Committee, participants were welcomed by the Secretary General of SAIF, Mr Josef Åhman. EUSA Executive Committee Delegate Mr Haris Pavletic welcomed all participants and wished all the teams and participants who came to test their skills and abilities great competitions and all the best. He also thanked the Organising Committee for all their contributions.

Monday started with the round robin groups. The teams of University of Helsinki, Volga Region State Academy of Physical Culture, Sport and Tourism, Stockholm University and University of Rouen winning the groups and managed to proceed to the semi-finals to earn a well deserved medal.

The teams semi-finals played on Tuesday were dominated by the University of Helsinki (3-0 vs. Volga Region State Academy of Physical Culture, Sport and Tourism) and University of Rouen (3-0 vs. Stockholm University). In the final, the University of Rouen only could win the Women’s Singles. The Finnish team from Helsinki, which is participating for the first time at the EUC, won the final 3-1. The team of the University of Helsinki was represented by Eetu Heino, Anton Kaisti, Sanni Rautala and Heini Ihalainen and can be congratulated for their win at the first appearance.

At the awards ceremony, Mr Mats Tibbelin, the President of the Swedish Badminton Federation and Mr Haris Pavletic as Executive Member of the European University Sports Association (EUSA) presented the medals and awards.

On Wednesday during the rest day, the participants had the chance to take part in Uppsala university life during the guided university tour and at night in the student nations organising the social life of the students.

The individual tournament started on 8 May and concluded on 11 May. In the men’s final, the title of champion went to Sven Eric Kastens, Saarland University, GER, who easily won the final against his countrymen, Alexander Roovers from the University of Duisburg-Essen. The women’s final was also an internal German settlement and the title of champion went to Anika Dörr, University of Duisburg-Essen who won to Mona Lea Reich from Mainz University.

The German team of the University of Duisburg-Essen was also successful in getting the gold medal in the women’s doubles, while in the men’s doubles the athletes from the Saratov State University, RUS took the lead. The mixed doubles were won by the representatives of the University of Helsinki, FIN, which also won the team’s event at this year’s Championship.

EUSA flag passed to the next host

Medals and awards were presented by Mr Stefan Bergh, FISU Vice-President, together with Mr Bastian Kruse EUSA Technical Delegate for Badminton and Mrs Isabelle Jobard, Assistant Technical Delegate.

The EUSA flag was passed on to the Technical University Delft, to be delivered to the Dutch Students Sports Association (Studentensport Nederland), as the next EUSA event featuring badminton will be the 2nd European Universities Games, which will take place in Rotterdam, the Netherlands in 2014.

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(Source: EUSA)