The badminton finals at the European Universities Games for the team event were held today at the Hall of Sports. People present were able to witness good matches between the teams who were playing to determine the final rankings. The team from the University of Bern played against the team from the University of Zagreb for the 11th place. The Zagreb team lived up to expectations and won the match 3:0. Zvonimir Holbling from Zagreb started the match by winning the first match. Nikolina Dimić continued in his steps and won the women’s singles match for Zagreb. Josip Uglešić and Filip Špoljarec finished the match by winning the men’s doubles, and they placed the University of Zagreb in the 11th place.
‘Unfortunately, we had some back luck with the draw, and we had to play against very strong opponents which brought us to the 11th place. We expect a lot more from the individual tournament and we will at least try to win a medal,’ commented Filip Lončarić, the coach of the team from Zagreb, on his team’s play at the team event.
Nizhny Novgorod University won the match for the fifth place 3:1 against the team from the University of Duisburg. After winning the mixed doubles, Alexander Roovers, a far superior German opponent, easily won the game against Ilia Kamyshenkov with 2:0 and evened the score. However, this win did not help the team from the University of Duisburg because they lost the next two games, women’s singles and men’s doubles, mostly due to their own mistakes. The Russian representative, Andrey Doltov, who, along with his colleague Ilia Kamyshenkov, won the deciding game, briefly commented the today’s match:
‘Today’s match was quite difficult, my partner and I enjoyed playing against such a good opponent. I would also like to congratulate them for a great performance, and thank them for their fair play.’
The University of Strasbourg clashed with Uludag University, and the team from Turkey proved more successful, winning 3:2. The final consisted of several matches played in a specific order: mixed doubles, than men’s and women’s singles, followed by men’s and women’s doubles. In the mixed doubles, Julien Maio and Rosy Panscari represented Strasbourg, while Sinan Zorlu and Neslihan Kilic defended the Uludag colors. The French took this match 2:1, showing consistency and focus in their play. Emre Lale defeated Samson Gradt Urban in the singles match that ensued. The Turks turned the score around as Cemre Fere triumphed over Rosy Pancasari in the women’s single. The following doubles match went to the French side – Juliwn Maio and Mateo Martinez took the win over Emre Lale and Sinan Zorlu.
The winner of the team tournament was thus decided in women’s doubles: Emilie Beaujean and Therese Grisweg played for Strasbourg and Cemre Fere and Neslihan Kilic represented Uludag. The first set went to the Turks, who won it easily 8:12. The girls from Strasbourg tried to resist, but ultimately failed and the Uludag team took the gold home. Uludag manager Okuna Gultekin, stated he was delighted his team won the gold medal. He commented:
‘We got a bit nervous after the University of Strasbourg won the mixed doubles, but we pulled ourselves together and won the tournament’
Third place was shared by the University of Erincan and the University of Rouen, as the third place match was not held, and the fair play award went to the University of Ljubljana.
Results
