It proved to be a mix bag of results for Badminton Europe’s Centre of Excellence players today at the Finnish Open with no fewer than 6 players in action in today’s qualification rounds.
Sweden’s Felix Burestedt proved the cream of the crop coming through three qualification rounds to back up his recent run of decent form and puts the success down to the tailored training at the Centre of Excellence in Denmark.
-The form has been pretty good the last few months and I think this is a direct result of more tailored training and myself and my coaches listening to my body more and what works and does not work.
Speaking about his matches today the Swede was in buoyant mood ahead of his main draw matches tomorrow.
-Three good wins today and I did it without wasting to much energy. I have to say I got a pretty decent draw also but I made the best of it so I am just happy to be in the main draw tomorrow and I go into it as fresh as I could have done out of qualification.
The remaining CoE five were not so fortunate but can regroup knowing that that hard work is starting to pay off. Ilias Xanthou (GRE), Toni Woods (SCO) and Jonathan Persson (GER) all suffered at the hands of Indian opposition while Matej Hlinican (SLV) lost out to Kotsarenko of Russia.
Armenia’s Lilit Poghosyan (pictured above) did show some positive signs in her match against LEE Zii Yii of Malaysia. The Armenian is certainly benefiting from her time in Denmark and with the luck of the draw will make a break through in the not to distant future. The Malaysian did go on to qualify and will certainly feature at the business end of the tournament come the weekend.
-I have not been feeling the best the last two days so I could not play my best. It is disappointing not to be able to play the shots and make good decisions during the game knowing that I have worked so hard with my coaches back in Denmark. It could have been better but I gave it my all.