The year of 2017 has indeed been a tremendous year for the Danish men’s singles Viktor Axelsen.
Besides winning the world championships title for the first time in 20 years in European badminton history, Japan Open and the Superseries Finals in Dubai was also on his list of achievements during last year.
- Thanks a lot to everyone who thought that I deserve this! It will give me a lot of motivation moving forward, Axelsen said in a video played to the Awards Gala.
Viktor Axelsen was unable to travel to Dubrovnik during this period leading up to the 2018 European Championships, but the Danish delegates will bring the award back to him in Denmark.
Awards for 2017
Many other prestigious awards were handed out during this evening of celebration in Dubrovnik. Most of them were decided by the fans by letting them vote on BEC’s social media.
The winners of the BEC Awards for the year of 2017 were:
Viktor Axelsen (DENMARK) – BEC Male Player of the Year
Kamilla Rytter Juhl/Christinna Pedersen (DENMARK) – BEC Female Player of the Year
Jack Shephard (ENGLAND) – BEC Para-Badminton Player of the Year
Toma Junior Popov (FRANCE) – BEC Young Player of the Year
Heidi Bender (GERMANY) – BEC Senior Player of the Year
Håkan Fossto (SWEDEN) – BEC Technical Official of the Year
Kenneth Jonassen (DENMARK) – BEC Coach of the Year
Women, Health & Sport Project (SPAIN) - Badminton For Women Award
Heidi Bender and Håkan Fossto was present during the evening to receive their awards in person.
The Technical Official of the Year, Coach of the Year and Women For Badminton Award were decided by the BEC Awards Panel.