Earlier this year in February, Matthieu Hecker, Events Officer at BEC, visited the Faroese Badminton Association as part of a Representative Visit under the BEC BASIS Programme to share knowledge for organising what would be the Faroe Islands’ first-ever BEC Circuit tournament. Five months later, the Faroe Islands received young badminton talents from around the world for the first edition of what would be a great event.

The Faroe Games Junior International 2022, a Junior International Series tournament, took place from 1 until 3 July in Tórshavn, the capital city of the country. Johnny í Grótinum, President of the Faroe Islands Badminton Association, is proud to have closed what has been an outstanding first edition of this tournament.

- With the Faroe Games Junior International 2022, we wrote badminton history in the Faroe Islands, since this was the first tournament with international recognition being held in our small country. With only 54,000 inhabitants the Faroese badminton environment has a limited capacity to host such international tournaments, but with good cooperation with Badminton Europe, we were able to organise the event. Overseeing the event was Jean-Marc Chancerel from France, a formidable referee leading and inspiring our umpires to do their very best.

The tournament’s podiums demonstrate the international scope of the Faroe Games Junior International 2022 — with three different continents and seven different countries represented among the winners.

- The tournament was a huge success with participants from seven different nationalities playing along with the 30 players from the Faroe Islands. We have already received very positive feedback from our foreign guests. It has been an eye-opener for our local players to compete with such competent players from places such as India, USA, Ireland, Scotland, and England. Also, it was a pleasure to see Danish players from the Junior National Team of Denmark playing in the finals.

Denmark got to take home three gold medals. Top seeded Emma Irring Braüner/ Rosalina Langhoff were the women’s doubles champions in a category in which all the other medallists were from the Faroe Islands, with second seeded Mia Thorkildshøj/ Sanna Thorkildshøj as runner-ups. In the mixed doubles, Hjalte Johansen/ Emma Irring Braüner won the gold while the silver went to the English-Danish pair of Harry Wakefield/ Rosalina Langhoff.

Harry Wakefield won another medal for England, but it was a gold in the men’s doubles — winning the final with partner Robin Harper against Ireland’s Matthew Cheung/ Stuart Mccollam. The bronze medals of the category were awarded to Faroe Island’s Ari Isfeld/ Leivur Joensen and Scotland’s Anthony Mcguire/ Angus Meldrum.

The women’s singles final went to three games with a triumph from Anwesha Gowda, India, and her Scottish opponent Abbie Brooks settled for the silver. Birna Jacobsen and Bjarnhild Justinussen, Faroe Islands, won the bronze, and so did Christian Berg Petersen in men’s singles. The category’s champion is Matthew Cheung, Ireland, who faced USA’s Aaron Bai in the final.

You can check all results here.

With a first new set of medallists and great memories of a successful event, Johnny í Grótinum, President of the Faroe Islands Badminton Association, hopes for many more Faroe Games Junior International to come.

- We hope to make this a recurring event in Badminton Europe’s circuit of tournaments. Either annually or biannually.