The 5.000 Dollars tournament 2014 Norwegian International Championships will take place at Jotunhallen in the small town of Sandefjord located 120 kilometers south of Oslo. Sandefjord is a modern coastal town with a rich historical heritage. The Qualification stage will commence on 13th of November while the finals will be played on Sunday, 16th of November. This year’s tournament will host about 170 players coming from 21 countries.
Marius Myhre (pictured), ranked 170 in the world, offers Norway's greatest chance for advancing forward. He is seeded as number 7 in the tournament. A lot of Norwegian players are entering the tournament to gain some international experience.
The hot favourite for the men’s singles crown is Raul Must of Estonia. Other strong players are title holder Kasper Lehikoinen (Finland), Steffen Rasmussen (Denmark), Kalle Kallljonen (Finland) and Nick Fransman (The Netherlands). In the women’s singles category, the top seeded player is Akvile Stapusaityte of Lithuania. It is expected to see the Danish national champion and title holder in Norway, Mia Blichfeldt (main picture) going far in the International Series tournament.
Click here for the draw.
"We are very satisfied with the large entry and we are looking forward to seeing all the young promising Norwegian players. None of them are older than 23 years and they are competing with all the strong players from almost all over Europe. Last year, we had players from the Nordic countries winning the tournament. Finland in the men’s singles and Denmark in the women’s singles and once again I think we will see players from our neighbor countries playing the finals day”, says Espen Larsen, Secretary General of Norwegian Badminton Federation.
Click here for the previous champions of the Norwegian International.
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There will be live streaming from one court the whole tournament. Check it out here.
Article by Christian Thode, Norwegian Badminton Association. All photos by BadmintonPhoto.