Danish young gun, Julie Finne-Ipsen (pictured) proved today that it is possible to mix competitive sport at the highest level as she stormed through qualification to book a first round meeting against Panuga Riou of England.

Finne-Ipsen, who also plays golf for the Danish national team, had the biggest smile on her face after dominating the bottom group of qualification in a women’s singles qualification draw that was dominated otherwise by Indonesian shuttlers.

Speaking about her varied sporting life Finne-Ipsen commented “In the summer I get to travel the world and play golf for Denmark and then come the winter I am ready mentally to take to the badminton courts once again which really works for me”

An early morning victory over Sabine Devooght was quickly followed up with a win over improving Englishwoman Georgina Bland before Finne-Ipsen came through an exhausting three set battle against Gayle Mahulette of The Netherlands where the Dutch girl just ran out of steam after three long and exhausting three set matches.

“I noticed at towards the end of the third set that Gayle (Mahulette) started to play to many errors which was an indication to me that she was tired. I kept the shuttles in play and she continued to make those errors which worked out for me”

Playing down her chances in the main round the young Dane explained that getting through qualification was the main goal. “Everyone knows qualification is very difficult so to get through it was my goal this week. It is tough to recover for the main draw but really any more from this tournament is now a bonus”.

Young Danish men light up men’s singles qualification

The Danish trio of Mathias Mundbjerg, Steffen Rasmussen & Kasper Dinesen booked their main draw places in yet another qualification discipline that was awash with Asian players. Both Mundbjerg and Rasmussen came through in the conventional way by winning three straight matches. The same could not be said for Dinesen as he trailed Italian Indra Bagus Ade Chandra by 1 game and 19-15 in the second before a strange twist of fate saw the Dane through to the main draw.

French number 1 Brice Leverdez was forced to withdraw late in the day which resulted in the referee stopping the match to promote the Italian to the main draw. As a result Dinesen also went through as qualification winner much to the delight of all associated with the Dane.

Elsewhere the young English partnership of Coles and Lim continued to blossom after only coming together as a partnership in April of this year. The English were dominant against Scottish and German opposition and were justifiably happy with their form today in Leuven.

“I think we have come a long way since we were put together at the tail end of last season and we have worked hard over the summer so this qualification victory has been proof of that” said Lim to Badminton Europe.

The Yonex Belgian International (#YBI13) continues tomorrow with the main rounds from 9am local time with all matches from court one streamed on Badminton Europe’s YouTube channel. To watch just click HERE.

For a full photo gallery from the days play follow Badminton Europe on Facebook by clicking HERE

For all results click HERE

Article and Image by Mark Phelan (Live in Leuven)