Events

Perfect start for French clubs on home soil
Date: 5/28/2013 2:01 PM
Published by : Manuel Røsler
The 2013 European Club Championships kicked off this morning at the Elispace Arena in Beauvais, France with 18 of Europe’s top club teams vying for the prestigious title of the best club in Europe. As hosts France have national champions Strasbourg alongside hosts Chambly in the draw and day 1 proved to be a near perfect day for both teams.

As national champions Strasbourg are the top seeded team in group 4 and justified their seeding with a 6-1 win over Israeli side Hatzor in the afternoon session. Tournament hosts BC Chambly Oise, Led by Kirsty Gilmour (pictured), went one better in group 3 by defeating Fiederball Scheffleng of Luxembourg with a 7-0 whitewash to top group 3 after the first days play.

Gilmour was favoured at first singles this afternoon ahead of Beatriz Corrales as the four-time European circuit winning Spaniard was deployed in mixed doubles in a French team that is awash with female talent. After a slow post Sudirman Cup jet-lagged start the Scot trailed 4-1 before seeing off her opponent in just 18 minutes.

Corrales took an even shorted time, alongside partner Sebastien Vincent, to end the challenge of Mergen and Nozdran. The Spanish French combo took just 15 minutes in their mixed doubles in a very one-sided tie where none of the 7 team matches stretched beyond 22 minutes.

Heavy Hitters flex their muscles

Top seeds Primorye Vladivostok signalled their intentions by fielding almost the entire Russian national team in their opening game of group 1. Their victims today were BC Saive of Belgium in what was a welcomed return to competition for Olympic bronze medallists Sorokina and Vislova.

With Ivanov, Sozonov, Prokopenko and Golovanova backing up their illustrious team mates the Russians stormed to a 7-0 team win in under 3 hours.

Danish Champions TSS were as equally impressive in their pair of 7-0 wins on day one but as is customary at this stage only introduced a handful of their heavy hitters for the group stages.

Fresh from his victory at the Spanish Open, Hans-Kristian Vittinghus came through in the match of the day against Recreativo’s Pablo Abian in a three set classic while Anders Skaarup Rasmussen, who also flew in from his victory at the Spanish Open put four wins together in men’s and mixed doubles.

The Danish Champions will fly in the rest of the troops for the knockout stages in the meantime Skaarup, Vittinghus, Brunn and crew will keep the ship ticking over en route to the quarter finals.

“We will obviously bring in some reinforcements for the knockout stages of the tournament as it is important for us to try and go one better than the runners up spot last year” said Skaarup.

Hungarians down the Dutch

In the closest match of the opening days play Hungarian champions Multi Alarm SE scuppered the chances of BC Amersfoort in what was a match of two halves. The Dutch controlled the doubles winning the mixed, men’s and women’s doubles but it was the Hungarians who came through taking all four singles in what is sure to be the group of death in this year’s competition.

Follow all the live action each day from court 1 on BEtv’s streaming portal by clicking HERE

Follow Badminton Europe on Facebook to view the daily photo gallery from Beauvais by clicking HERE

For all results from the 2013 European Club Championships click HERE
 
Article and Image by Mark Phelan (Live in Beauvais)
©badmintoneurope.com. All rights reserved.

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