Hosts from Estonia was drawn into a tough group with the defending champions from 2017; France.
The 2018 edition of the European Junior Team Championships is a bit more than one month away, and this afternoon Badminton Europe conducted the draw for the group stage live on Facebook.
France, seeded 2, has already announced their squad for the event on the federation's website, and the list reads successful players from the European U17 Championships last year including medalists from the recent European Junior Championships; runner-up from 2017 in men’s singles Arnaud Merkle and U17 men’s doubles champions Christo Popov and Kenji Lovang.
Estonia and France are accompanied by Ukraine and Sweden in Group 2. The first seeded nation, Denmark, is in Group 1 with Switzerland, Lithuania and Bulgaria. If players from the U17 team champions from 2017 have made team is hard to say at this point as the official list of players will be announced on August 22.
New year, new stars
This September will the first time hosting a European championship for the Estonian federation. All the future stars will battle for glory in Kalev Sport Hall, which has previously hosted a world championships qualification tournament in volleyball.
Last year, French players had great success at the event in Mulhouse and this year the Estonian top junior players like Karl Kert and Karina Kapanen can look forward to competing on their home turf.
The next key dates for the 2018 European Junior Championships events will be August 24 and 28, where Badminton Europe will announce the seedings and draws for the individual event.
The draw for the team competition of the 2018 European Junior Championships is the following:
GROUP 1:
Denmark
Switzerland
Lithuania
Bulgaria
GROUP 2:
France
Ukraine
Estonia
Sweden
GROUP 3:
England
Spain
Portugal
Hungary
GROUP 4:
Russia
Slovakia
Latvia
Iceland
GROUP 5:
Germany
Israel
Finland
Italy
GROUP 6:
Czech Republic
Moldova
Belgium
Norway
GROUP 7:
Turkey
Cyprus
Ireland
Austria
Slovenia
GROUP 8:
Scotland
Croatia
Poland
Netherlands
Romania
The team event will begin on September 7 and conclude on September 11.