Two French duos take the gold home to France after the finals of the doubles at the Mediterranean Games, on June 25th. The multi-sport games between nations around or very close to the Mediterranean Sea, marks where the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa meet.
26 nations gather, usually, every four years to compete in 33 different sports, here amongst badminton. The games take place from June 22th to July 1st, while the badminton competition began on June 23rd and ended today on June 26th.
France’s Delphine Delrue and Lea Palermo come straight from the top of the podium at Spanish International 2018 and onto the next at the Mediterranean Games in Tarragona, Spain. They beat Bengisu Ercetin and Nazlican Inci from Turkey in two games.
Bastian Kersaudy and Thom Giqcuel won gold in men’s doubles, while the bronze medals was won by Lukas Osele and Kevin Strobl from Italy. The winners of the women’s doubles bronze were the Slovenian sisters Iza and Lia Salehar.
Abian wins gold for Spain
Finals for the singles events was the last on the schedule which revealed that Pablo Abian from Spain wins gold on home court after beating Lucas Corvee of France; 21-23, 21-15, 21-17.
Compatriot Beatriz Corrales tried to win the gold medal for Spain in women’s singles, but lost to Neslihan Yigit from Turkey; 21-19, 23-21. Aliye Demirbag from Turkey and Toma Junior Popov from France won the bronze matches, and the two of them will bring a medal home to their Mediterranean country.
The very first Mediterranean Games was organized in 1951, and besides badminton these are the following sports that the Mediterranean nations compete in; archery, athletics, basketball, volleyball (beach), bocce, boxing, canoeing (flatwater), cycling (road), diving, equestrian, fencing, field hockey, football, golf, gymnastics (artistic), handball, judo, karate, roller hockey, rowing, rugby, sailing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, volleyball (indoor), water polo, waterskiing, weightlifting, wrestling.
Women's singles medallists
Gold: Neslihan Yigit (Turkey)
Silver: Beatriz Corrales (Spain)
Bronze: Aliye Demirbag (Turkey)
Men's singles medallists
Gold: Pablo Abian (Spain)
Silver: Lucas Corvee (France)
Bronze: Toma Junior Popov (France)
Women's doubles medallists
Gold: Lea Palermo & Delphine Delrue (France)
Silver: Bengusi Ercetin & Nazlihan Inci (Turkey)
Bronze: Lia Salehar & Iza Salehar (Slovenia)
Men's doubles medallists
Gold: Bastian Kersaudy & Thom Gicquel (France)
Silver: Serdar Koca & Serhat Salim (Turkey)
Bronze: Kevin Strobl & Lukas Osele (Italy)
Photos by Foto Tarragona 2018