EMWТС 2016. Day 1 results

The opening matches of the European Men’s and Women’s Team Badminton Championships started at the Gymnastics Centre, Kazan on February 16.

The favourites of the tournament, the Danes, took an unbeatable lead from the outset leaving no chance to their opponents. The men’s team posted an easy win over Turkey, 5-0, while the women’s team beat the opposing team from Finland, 4-1.

Quite unexpectedly, the Spanish women’s team put on a disappointing performance in a match against Team Bulgaria. Being one of the main contenders for the European badminton title, Spain suffered a bitter defeat, 2-3, at the hands of the Bulgarian team that is motivated enough to perform no worse than two years ago in Basel (SUI) where they had taken bronze.

The Russian national team succeeded to meet their fans’ expectations and put up a good show by winning two matches. The men’s team beat Slovenia, 4-1, and the female badminton players whitewashed Ireland, 5-0. The Russian women’s team is quite straightforward about its goal – to make it to the final at the least. “The match ended in 5-0, just like we planned it. All the girls are in a good shape, hence we expect nothing but victory,” said a member of the Russian national team, Tatyana Bibik. “The first match is always challenging but Ksenia Polikarpova performed confidently and won the game with 2-1. The rest went well, as planned. Our group is not that strong that’s why we are prepared to win confidently and get ready for the quarterfinal and semifinal. We have an ultimate goal for this tournament. We have strong competitors here - England, Germany but we still intend to reach the final. And  then we will see whether we will be able to win or not. As for the event management, it’s great. The facilities are top-level, just like in Europe. We are happy to play in this atmosphere on home soil.”

EMWТС 2016. Group stage

Men

Group 1

Denmark - Turkey 5-0

Croatia - Finland 3-2

Group 2

Bulgaria - Hungary 3-2

England - Estonia 5-0

Group 3

Germany - Lithuania 5-0

Ireland - Czech Republic 2-3

Group 4

Sweden - Slovakia 5-0

France - Scotland 4-1

Group 5

Russia - Slovenia 4-1

Austria - Ukraine 1-4

Group 6

Poland - Norway 5-0

Belgium - Italy 5-0

Norway - Spain 0-5

Poland - Belgium 5-0

Women

Group 1

Denmark - Finland 4-1

Belarus - Lithuania 1-4

Group 2

Spain - Bulgaria 2-3

Belgium - Estonia 0-5

Group 3

Germany - France 4-1

England - Wales walkover

Group 4

Turkey - Ukraine 2-3

Czech Republic - Italy 5-0

Group 5

Russia - Ireland 5-0

Slovakia - Hungary 1-4