The high-performance training centre in Holbæk, Denmark, has a lot of visitors this week.
One of them is Ksenia Polikarpova, 27, from Israel. She is currently at the centre and will stay until 26 January.
- Most of the top 40-70 players have problems about where to train and with whom in their own countries. In most cases they are growing alone and there are not enough players around who are ready to train 2-3 per day, 6 days per week, Polikarpova told Badminton Europe upon her arrival.
- The Centre of Excellence tries to create this base, which gives the opportunities to work structurally, which should be a priority for all professional badminton players.
Seeking structure
Polikarpova decided to join the centre for ten days to see for herself how the centre is setup. She hopes that she can learn a lot from this experience at Badminton Europe’s training centre in Holbæk.
- I think that the Centre of Excellence can give me structure, good professional sparring and new knowledge about badminton and training processes.
10 months ago, the now Israeli decided to move from Russia to now live and represent Israel. She started to play back in 1999 and has set long-term goals for a European Games medal, a European individual championship medal and the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
Greece, Germany, Mauritius and Ireland
Germany’s Jonathan Persson also arrived on Monday and is staying until Friday this week. Greece’s Ilias Xanthou and Mauritius’ Kate Foo Kune both arrived in Holbæk this Sunday and Foo Kune is leaving with Persson on 19 January, while Xanthou has decided to stay in Holbæk until the month of June.
Jonathan Dolan of Ireland was expected to arrive this week as well, but will arrive later due to sickness. Along with the above-mentioned players, Robert Mann of Luxembourg was recently announced as a player. Badminton Europe is excited to already have players visiting from all over the world.
Many of the players are playing the BEC Circuit tournaments around Europe, and you can follow them live from Swedish Open this week.