Lucas Mazur (FRA) was the star of the day in the finals of the China Para-Badminton International which was held in Beijing from the 27th-29th of May. Lucas, competing in the Men´s Singles in SL4 upset the top seeded player, Bakri Omar from Malaysia in just 25 minutes. He then added another bronze medal into his collection in the Men´s Doubles in SL3-4, partnering another French player, Geoffrey Byzery.

Helle Sofie Sagoy (NOR) and Sonja Haesler (SUI) prevented an all Chinese affair on the Women´s Singles and Women´s Doubles podium in their respective Sport Classes. The young and energetic Helle partnered French player, Veronique Braud and won the bronze in the combination Sport Class of SL3-SU5 and a second bronze in the Women´s Singles SL4.

However, Sonja who was seeded first in both Women´s Singles (WH1) and Women´s Doubles (WH1-2) could not live up to her top seeding expectation and bowed out to her stronger Chinese opponents, bringing home two bronze medals.

Nevertheless, it was generally a good outing for the European players where 4 out of 5 competing countries won at least a medal in Beijing. All in all, the European players bagged 1 gold, 3 silvers and 14 bronze medals.

The next para-badminton international will be the Carlton Irish International which will take place in Dublin from the 24th – 28th of June 2015. All the para-badminton players are making the most out of these tournaments in order to gain the best rankings before the World Para-Badminton Championships which will be organized by Badminton England in Stoke Mandeville in September.

For the complete results of this tournament, click here.
To view the 2015 Para-Badminton Calendar, click here.

Photo by BadmintonPhoto.