EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY – Russians shine

The 8th European Universities Badminton Championships have finally concluded on Saturday, June 25 with a spectacular closing ceremony at the Lokomotive Sports Hall of Kharkov – Ukraine.

By Bastian Kruse. Photos: Rights reserved (live)

111 participants from 24 universities from 7 countries took part in this year’s edition of the event.  In the team event final, the title of champion went to Far Eastern State Technical University Vladivostok, who won an exciting final against the Dnipropetrovsk National Metallurgical Academy of Ukraine. In the final, the Vladivostok team, with their matchups Dremin / Dimova and Grachev managed to win the first two matches. Ulitina won the Women’s Singles and brought back some hope to the home spectators. These hopes were crushed by the solid Men’s Doubles performance of Dremin / Grachev. After their win the Russian delegation celebrated their team event title enthusiastically.

The final ranking of the teams is as follows:

Gold: Far Eastern State Technical University Vladivostok (RUS)

Silver: Dnipropetrovsk National Metallurgical Academy (UKR)

Bronze (shared): National Technical University “Kharkov Polytechnical Institute” (UKR)

Bronze (shared): Nizhny Novgorod State University (RUS)

5th place (shared):  Technische Universitaet Muenchen (GER)

5th place (shared):  Université de Bordeaux (FRA)

5th place (shared):  Université de STAPS Orsay (FRA)

5th place (shared):  University of  Bern (SUI)

9th place: University of Duisburg-Essen (GER)

10th place: University of Saarland (GER)

11th place (shared): Université de Rouen (FRA)

11th place (shared): University of Geneva (SUI)

13th place (shared):  University of Minho (POR)

13th place (shared):  Université de Nantes (FRA)

13th place (shared):  University of Muenster (GER)

The individual event took place from Thursday to Saturday.

The mixed doubles was won by Evgeny DREMIN / Evgeniya DIMOVA (Far Eastern State Technical University Vladivostok, Russia) in two sets (21:15, 21:15) against Till ZANDER / Astrid HOFFMANN (University of Hamburg, Germany) as the outplayed their opponents in the midcourt area.

The bronze medals were won by Georgiy NATAROV / Anna KOBTSEVA (National Technical University “Kharkov Polytechnical Institute”, Ukraine) and Stepan YAROSLAVTSEV / Anastasia CHERVIAKOVA (Nizhny Novgorod State University, Russia)

Dmytro ZAVADSKYY (Kharkov Polytechnical Institute, Ukraine) dominated the men’s singles and won with 21:16 and 21:13 against the newcomer Lucas CLAERBOUT (Université de Bordeaux, France) and earned his first men’s singles title at the European University Badminton Championships.

The bronze medals were won by Sylvain TERNON (Université de Rouen, France) and Denis GRACHEV (Far Eastern State Technical University Vladivostok, Russia).

In the following ladies’ singles, Kim BUSS (University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany) with her 10th match defeated point local hero Olena PRUS (Kharkov Polytechnical Institute, Ukraine) 21:13, 19:21, 24:22 by mixing long and exhausting rallies and deceptive shots against her.

The bronze medals were won by the teammates Maria ULITINA and Natalia VOITSEKH (both from the Dnipropetrovsk National Metallurgical Academy of Ukraine).

In the men’s doubles Dmytro ZAVADSKYY won his second title with his partner Vitaliy KONOV (Kharkov Polytechnical Institute, Ukraine) in the closest of all final matches. Against the Russians Evgeny DREMIN / Denis GRACHEV (Far Eastern State Technical University Vladivostok, Russia) they succeeded with 21:18:21, 15:21 and 26:24 and managed to repeat their title from the previous event in Nancy – France.

The bronze medals were won by Antoine BEBIN / Sylvain TERNON (Université de Rouen, France) and the swiss brothers Christoph HEINIGER / Thomas HEINIGER (University of Berne, Switzerland)

In the last final of this year’s tournament, Anna KOBTSEVA / Olena PRUS dominated the ladies’ doubles and won with 21:13 and 21:14 versus Maria ULITINA / Natalia VOITSEKH (Dnipropetrovsk National Metallurgical Academy of Ukraine).

The bronze medals were won by Kim BUSS / Laura UFERMANN (University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany) and Mona REICH / Sandra EMRICH (University of Mainz, Germany)

Medals and awards were presented by Mr. Dinos Pavlou, EUSA EC member assisted by Mr. Bastian Kruse, EUSA Technical Delegate for Badminton and the Referee Lajos Csanda.

At the end, the EUSA flag was passed to the University of Uppsala – Sweden which will organize the 9^th European University Badminton Championships in 2013.

The next badminton event will take place within the 1st European Universities Games in Cordoba – Spain from the 10^th of July to the 23^rd of July 2012 where all teams are warmly welcomed to join.

The National Technical University of Kharkov and the Kharkov Badminton Federation with their main representatives Gennadiy Makhnovskiy and Georgiy Natarov made a miracle come true to organize such a high quality tournament within only 5 months after the withdrawal of the University of Thessaloniki – Greece due to the financial crisis.

For the first time each university had an own team attaché speaking the language of the foreign universities which was very useful in communication terms and during the visits to the city.

Besides the wonderfully organized tournament and the kind and helpful volunteers, the students enjoyed their stay in Kharkov very much. The European University Badminton Championships will give the Students Sports Union of Ukraine, and badminton in Ukraine generally, a great boost.

More information can be found at www.eubc2011.com or www.eusa.eu

Click here for complete results from the team event

Click here for complete results from the individual event