[Английский] World champion!

World champion!

From November 28 until December 4, the ElPozo BWF World Senior Badminton Championships took place. Our colleague Sandra Kroon travelled to Huelva (Spain) to participate in the category 55+.

The first matches

For Sandra, the tournament started on Monday November 29. Her first match was the ladies singles against Marleen Loos (Belgium). Sandra managed to win this game quite easily (21-9 and 21-8). Her next game was November 30. Time for the mixed doubles. Together with Magnus Nytell (Sweden) Sandra played against Terry Shearman and Catherine Jowett (England). They won this match with 21-11 and 21-11.

On the 1^st of December three matches were planned:

• The mixed doubles against the Englishman Ian Ross and the German Doris Reiche. By winning with 21-10 and 21-15 Sandra and Magnus were too strong for this couple. On to the next round!
• The women’s single against England’s June Hammond. With 15-21 and 19-21, Hammond was too strong for Sandra. Which unfortunately meant elimination in the women’s singles.
• The third and final match of that day was the women’s doubles. She played the women’s doubles with Lise Lotte Bilgrav (Denmark) against Anki Gunners (Sweden) and Xin Zhou (Hong Kong). Sandra and Lise Lotte won the first game 21-16, the next two games were won by the opponent (11-21 and 9-21). This meant elimination in the women’s doubles.

The quarter final, semi final and final

The next match was on December 2. The Dutch/Swedish combination played against the Irish/English combination Mark Topping and Debora Miller. The couples were evenly matched. Sandra and Magnus eventually won in two games in this quarter final, results: 24-22 and 22-20. One day later, on December 3, Sandra and her mixed doubles partner played the semifinals. They played against Prabhu Naik Naidu Kona and Suzanne Venglet (India). They won the first game 21-16. The second game Sandra and Magnus made it a bit more exciting: they managed to turn a 20-18 (almost) loss into a 23-21 win. On to the final!

The final would have taken place on Saturday, December 4 at 10 a.m. The opponents were Erik Soderberg and Anki Gunners (Sweden). Unfortunately, this game was not played, because the opponent was sick.

Even though they didn’t have to play for it, Sandra and Magnus went home with a gold medal!

As of now we have a world champion walking around at the office. Congratulations Sandra, we are proud of you!