EURO TEAMS – It’s now Denmark’s to lose!!

By Mark Phelan (Live in Warsaw).  Photos: Badmintonphoto.com (Live)

It is very rare in modern sport that a team can even dream of gaining a gold medal without losing a goal in soccer, or dropping a set in tennis along the way. At the European team Championships in Poland it is a distinct possibility that Denmark could claim gold without dropping a single match along the way. An even more frightening statistic is that they have actually only dropped one set in a week’s play en route to the final.

In today’s semi final the Danes were once again relentless in their pursuit of gold. There victims this time were Germany, who many fancied as outside contenders for a final spot. Peter Gade (pictured bottom) entered the fray at semi-final stage and immediately settled into his rhythm as his fresh legs were just too hot for Marc Zwiebler and the top Dane won 21-6, 21-13. After the initial win by ‘the king’, the crown princes Boe and Mogensen, also fresh off the plane, took to the stage and kicked off the cobwebs with a 21-17, 21-18 win over Fuchs and Kindervarter. Denmark wrapped up the win as a slightly spluttering Jan O Jorgensen eventually found his game face halfway into the first set to come back from 16-7 down to send his team to the final with a 24-22, 21-17 win.

“I had a problem focusing today. It’s been a very long week so maybe my mind was not quiet where it should have been. But rest assured I will be ready for the final tomorrow,” said Jorgensen after his victory.

The Danes will now meet the home nation Poland in the final as they battled it out to the wire against a very competent Ukrainian team. The Poles took the first match through a revitalised Wacha (pictured top) in three sets but Ukraine came right back and took both the second and third men’s singles matches, both in three games, to take a one match lead heading into the final two doubles duels.

In another 3-game battle, the Poles sent the overall tie into a deciding match as Wacha and Mateusiak beat a tired-looking Atraschenkov and Druzchenko. The Poles, with arguably the most consistent men’s pairing in these finals of Cwalina and Logosz, destroyed Konov and Zavadsky in the final match to lay some truth to the fact that it is very hard to win a match at this level without specialist men’s singles and doubles pairings due purely to the fatigue factor when individual players are playing many matches in both singles and doubles over the course of a long week.

“This has been an amazing journey for us this week. The noise in the hall from the support was amazing this evening and now we want to go and do our best in the final. For sure Denmark are the favourites but we will have belief in ourselves and we will have the extra man that is the home crowd behind us. It is sure to make the final exciting tomorrow,” said a very happy Adam Cwalina after the Polish victory.

Tomorrow’s finals will commence with the ladies’ gold medal match between Denmark and Russia while the Netherlands and Germany will battle it out for the bronze. The Danes will attempt the double as their men line up against Poland while Ukraine and Germany fight it out for the minor placings.

For all results click HERE