Uzhgorod athelets are bronze medalists of the Speedminton Championship of Europe! (Photo)

Summer is the time of the most prestigious speedminton tournaments. 

    So, the fourth European Championship has taken place! More than 320 participants from twenty countries over three days were relentlessly competing for the medals. July 24-26, Warsaw brought together the best speedminton athelets from all over Europe. All participants showed their skills and dexterity. All were united with one thing – the desire to play and win!

The tournament took place in the tennis sports complex "Warsawianka" which has more than 20 both open and closed tennis courts. Therefore, temporary rain did not stop the championship.

Our country could not ignore such an event. In Ukraine, speedminton is just at the initial stage of development, but nevertheless, there are people who train, learn, and most importantly – have the desire to play, grow and develop in speedminton.

    Ukraine was represented by eight participants in five different competitive categories:

                                                                Mykhailo Mandryk – Open Division (Uzhgorod)

                                                                Dmytro Marynchyev – Open Division (Kharkiv) 

                                                               Oleksiy Pylypov – Open Division (Uzhgorod)

                                                               Olena Zatvarska – Woman (Uzhgorod)

                                                                Valeria Chykalenko – Woman (Uzhgorod)

                                                                Kostyantyn Dalenchuk – Men 40+ (Donetsk)

                                                                Volodymyr Nezhyvy – Men 50+ (Donetsk)

                                                                Oleksandr Tsyukalo – Men 50+ (Uzhgorod)     

Mykhailo Mandryk / Olena Zatvarska – Mix Doubles

Oleksiy Pylypov / Valeria Chykalenko – Mix Doubles

On the first day of the championship, July 24, after the opening ceremony, matches in doubles category started. And the first success for Ukraine! In the category of Mix Doubles – a couple of athletes from Uzhgorod – Mandryk / Zatvarska – won bronze medals. A couple from Germany – Gossen / Grüne – won gold medals, Slovenians Shustershic / Keber won silver medals. Swiss Dara and Beat Ladners shared the third place with the athletes from Ukraine.

 On the second day of competition, there were qualifying matches to the main draw and the finals in Junior categories. On the final day – Saturday – there were finals in all adult categories. And again, success for Ukraine! 

     Mykhailo Mandryk – a young, ambitious athlete from Uzhgorod in bitter fighting took the third place on the podium, losing in the semifinals to the current champion, Swede Per Hjalmarson.  Serbian Mladen Stankovic won the silver medal. Bronze was shared by Mandryk and the Slovak athelet Jan Schavnitsky.

      Speedminton, despite its young age, is steadily gaining popularity in Europe and in the world. Currently, it is the fourth European Championship, moreover, two world championships have already been held, which proves once again that speedminton has big future.

Open Division Final

All results are HERE 

Source – speedbadminton.com.ua