General

European Students win four Medals at WUC
Date: 11/23/2012 12:31 PM
Published by : Manuel Røsler

The 12th FISU World University Badminton Championship (WUBC) were held from the 6th to the 11th of November at Yeomju Gymnasium and Bitgoeul Gymnasium in Gwangju / Korea under the tournament slogan “With a Ray of Passion”. The WUBC, who has brought together about 180 shuttlers from more than 18 countries, is hosted by FISU (International University Sports Federation) and is a prelude to the 2015 Gwangju Summer Universiade, where badminton is included as optional sport.

The tournament began with an opening ceremony followed by a three day team tournament. The group favorites made their way through the 4 pools with Spain winning against Poland in group D.  In the quarters  Spain lost vs. Japan  1-3, Great Britain vs. China 0-3 and Russia vs. Korea 0-3. In the team final the Korean team including Lee Yong-Dae, born in the region of Gwangju, won  vs. China with 3-0 winning the Mixed Doubles, the decisive men's singles in a 84 minutes long battle between Dong Keun Lee and Houwei Tian, and the men's doubles. The bronze medals were awarded to the semi-finalists Japan and Chinese Taipei.  Spain’s team composed of Pablo Abian, Ernesto Velazquez, Beatriz Corrales and Bianca Ibeas  finished as best European team in 5th place, Great Britain on 7th place, Russia on 8th place an Poland on 9th place.

The individual tournament took place from Friday to Sunday broadcasted on Korean television.

In the men's Singles, Pablo Abian, seeded #1 managed all his was through to the final, by winning two tough matches against Japanese Naito and Korean Dong Keun Lee in the semis. In the finals unfortunately he could not repeat his excellent performances and lost to Wen Kai (CHN) with 16:21 and 8:21. Dark horse Ernesto Velazquez managed to beat seeded Chu, Han-Cu (TPE) and Shu Wada (JPN) and really deserved his bronze medal.

In the mixed doubles the polish pair Wojciech Szkudlarczyk & Agnieszka Wojtkowska was seeded #1 and they won their first matches against pairs from India and Japan convincingly. In the Semis at the end they could not hold the pressure of the Koreans KANG Ji Wook & KIM Chan and lost 19:21 and 14:21, but what a great achievement for them winning the bronze mdal.

In the men's doubles Andreas Heinz & Max Schwenger (GER) showed the performance of their life.  In the Quarters they managed to beat LU Chia-Pin & LU Chin-Yao (TPE*5/8) with 21:19 15:21 21:18. In the Semis they played former Olympic Champion Lee Yong Dae and his partner Kim Ki Jung.  Being down 11:16 in the first set, with fantastic defense they managed to hold the Koreans off the net and win 9 points in a row to take the first game with 21:17. The Koreans raised their pressure and took an early 9:2 lead in the second game preserving it to the end of the game. The rubber game was close till the very end and finally the Koreans won a thrilling 55min match 19:21, 21:13 and 21:17 and were very surprised by the performance of the German pair


The best ever organized WUBC, organized on a level of a Super series tournament, ended with the awarding ceremonies and the closing ceremony followed by a farewell dinner in an ancient Korean temple with delicious temple food. All participants will remember their new experiences on the fields of sports, culture and meeting friends from all over the world.

Click here for scores and other information and here for photos from the 2012 FISU World University Badminton Championship in Gwangju, South Korea.

The 2013 University Badminton calendar includes the 9th European Universities Badminton Championships in Uppsala / Sweden and the 27th Summer Universiade in Kazan / Russia.  While the EUBC is a competition of university teams, the Summer Universiade offers a World Class tournament and the possibility to compete with Asian top class players to develop your U23 student players and make a pre-Olympic  experience.

Article and photo by Bastian Kruse

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