Events

Historic Gold for Marin
Date: 4/27/2014 12:38 PM
Published by : Manuel Røsler

Carolina Marin wrote her name into Spanish badminton history books this afternoon by winning the women’s singles gold medal at the 2014 INTERSPORT European Championships. In truth Marin had already created her own bit of history by winning the bronze medal on Friday but the whole of Europe expected her to go all the way and claim the top step of the podium which she duly did.

The Spanish number ones opponent on the day was rank outsider for the title Denmark’s Anna Thea Madsen and the plucky Dane brought her fighting spirit to the finals court and made life very difficult for the new champion.

Nerves we evident early on and both players struggled to settle. After trading early points the Spanish top seed cruised to a first game win and everyone expected the Dane to roll over and die at that point.

European finals do not come along that often and Madsen’s coached must surely have reminded her of that before game two. The diminutive Dane came out fighting in the second game and stunned Marin taking the match into a deciding set.

That was as good as it got for Madsen as Marin demonstrated why she is the best player in Europe as she cruised to the title to add the senior gold to the junior title she won exactly three years ago.

“This victory is for the people of Spain and all the people who have helped me along the way.” Said an emotional Marin after her victory.

Double Gold for Pedersen as she defends her women’s doubles title

Christinna Pedersen proved to be the player of the tournament coming away from Kazan with two gold medals in the mixed and women’s doubles. Along with Joachim Fischer Nielsen she lifted the very first title of the day in mixed doubles in a match that pitted her against her doubles partner Kamilla Rytter Juhl.

“It’s tough to play against your friends and team mates and it was even tougher knowing that Kamilla was on the other side of the net and she would have to pick herself up to play the women’s doubles shortly after.”

Pick herself up she did and Juhl partnered Pedersen to an easy win in the women’s doubles final over Røpke and Kruse.

“It is great to win this match as losing the mixed doubles was not a pleasant feeling.” Said Juhl. “It is even better to have defended our title which puts us in an elite club of Danish European double champions.”

Jørgensen joins the greats of Danish European champions

Jan Ø. Jørgensen joined an illustrious list of famous European champions by lifting the European crown in two games against England’s Rajiv Ouseph. The world number 3 joins past greats such as Peter Gade, Morten Frost and Poul-Erik Høyer all legends of the game in Denmark and Europe alike.

After an opening roller coaster game against Ouseph the Dane slipped into overdrive to ease home in two games to assert his position as Europe’s top men’s singles player.

“It was important for me to win as I have come close in the past. To join such greats of Danish badminton is an honour and I was just determined to enjoy the match and the day which I never really did in past European championships.”

Russians lift men’s doubles title to end Danish dominance

In the final match of the day Russian duo Ivanov and Sozonov continued their amazing run to lift the European title on home soil. The pair had already beaten Boe and Mogensen in the semi-final and were quick to dispel the threat of second Danish men’s doubles pair Conrad and Kolding in two straight games.

It was the match the large crowd had waited patiently for all day and the scenes of celebration at the end befitted a championship that had professionalism written all over it from the outset.

“It is unbelievable to win here in Russia in from of our home fans. We knew we could do it after the semi-final win and to the felling inside right now is like no other” said a delighted Ivan Sozonov after the victory.

Click here for today's finals results

To re visit all the on demand action from today’s finals go to Badminton Europe’s YouTube streaming channel by clicking HERE.

For a full Facebook photo gallery from the finals follow Badminton Europe by clicking HERE

For all tweets from Kazan click follow Badminton Europe on Twitter HERE and search hashtag #EC2014

Article and Image by Mark Phelan (Live in Kazan)

©badmintoneurope.com. All rights reserved.

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