In a day of finals that was predominantly dominated by Asian players there was a European ray of light in the men’s singles as Przemyslaw Wacha (pictured) lifted yet another gold medal in what has been a magical seven months for the Pole.

There was always going to be a European winner of the men’s singles today after both Wacha and Yuhan Tan from Belgium battled through the semi finals early in the day. Credit has to be given to both men for beating both top seeds in what was a highly competitive men’s singles draw in Austria.

But in any final there can only be one winner and once again it was the veteran Pole that came out on top. Tan got off to a rip roaring start and took the opening game 21-14 but everyone knows that Wacha never gives up and came storming back to level the match at one game apiece with a 21-15 win in the second.

The Pole got off to the best possible start in the deciding set and though Tan battled hard in a fiercely competitive high tempo match he just could not recover after going 4-0 down and Wacha took the title 21-16 for his fourth win 7 months.

In the women’s doubles the European based sister NG defeated Obanana and Lee to take their third title in three months with a nice brand of attacking badminton. The sisters are based in the UK at the famous Loughborough University studying which has a tradition steeped in badminton.

“We really did not expect to win here this week as we have not been training much due to our studies. We will now go and play All England’s and after than we go home to Malaysia for a break to see our family which we are really looking forward to” said the NG sisters to Badminton Europe. In a very multinational feel to the finals there were no less than five different countries represented on the top step of the podium in Vienna.

The men’s doubles went to Kumar and Thomas from India with some relief thrown in. “We have not won in a while but have been in finals so this is nice to take forward to Germany net week”

The women’s singles was won by the tall Japanese player Sayaka Takahashi who trailed 17-10 in the opening game before coming back with 11 straight points to win the set. The Japanese player went on to win in two sets over top see Chan Tsz Ka.

In the mixed the title went to Wong and Chau from Hong Kong for the second year running as the dominated Jaquet and Dumartheray from Switzerland in just 20 minutes.

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Article and Images by Mark Phelan (Live in Vienna)