France was on top of the podium at the prize ceremony for the European Junior Team Championships last year. In September, they travel to Estonia as second seeds to defend their title.
The best junior players in Europe will soon gather in Tallinn, Estonia, for the 2018 European Junior Championships. The team competition will commence on September 7th, while the individual competition kicks off on September 11th.
Today, Badminton Europe has announced the seedings for the team competition which revealed that the champions from 2017 will be seeded second.
Highest-ranked junior men’s singles from France, Arnaud Merkle, 18, hopes that his team can exceed their seeding in Tallinn.
- Getting the gold in Mulhouse showed us that it was possible to do it. We are going to do everything we can to step on the highest step of the podium again and I am sure that we have what it takes to do it, Merkle said to Badminton Europe.
Tough competitors from Denmark
Denmark will usually hold the role as favorites, when it is within Europe, but did not succeed to the final in 2017. Russia was France’s opponent back then and have earned a spot in the 3/4 seedings along with England.
Merkle has his eye out for the first seeded team from Denmark, which he believes is their biggest competitor. For now, all the French men’s singles player can do is prepare physically for the long tournament lasting nine days from the start of the team event to the finish of the individual event.
- The preparation is really though physically in order to be in the best physical shape possible for both the team event and the individual event, which is almost 10 intensive days. Training is going very well and I hope to be at the very best of my shape in Estonia, he explains.
Stay tuned for the draw of the European Junior Team Championships already this week. The draw will be published on Thursday August 2nd. Seeding and draw for the individual competition will follow on August 24 and 28, respectively.
The seeding for the team competition of the 2018 European Junior Championships are the following:
1 Denmark
2 France
3/4 Russia
3/4 England
5/8 Germany
5/8 Czech Republic
5/8 Turkey
5/8 Scotland
Find more information on the event here