Events

Niclas Nøhr (Denmark) and Jimmy Andersen (Senior Manager at Badminton Europe) conducting the draw for the Mixed Doubles group stage for the European Games.
- I am confident about our chances
Date: 6/4/2019 3:32 PM
Published by : Aidan Jones (BEC)
Niclas Nøhr, who was the guest for the European Games Mixed Doubles draw has given his overall thoughts from his group.

The Mixed Doubles defending Champion from the 2015 European Games in Baku, along with Sara Thygesen will be in Group B alongside, Marcus Ellis/Lauren Smith (GBR), Alberto Zapico/Lorena Usle (ESP) and Valeriy Atrashchenkov/Yelyzaveta Zharka(UKR).

A satisfied Niclas Nøhr

The Dane is overall, happy with his group for the Mixed Doubles category at the European Games and has never lost to any pair who he and Thygesen have been drawn with.

Nøhr is wary of the threats that some of the pairs can possess and found out that at the Sudirman Cup last month.

- Of course, Marcus and Lauren are a top player in Europe and in the world. They are a very strong pair. We have beaten them before in Spain, Niclas Nøhr said.

- At the Sudirman a few weeks ago, they showed a really high level and they have increased their level, but I am satisfied with that match, he added.

- I am confident about our chances for the group and hopefully get through to the knockout rounds.


Trying out something new

The 27-year old revealed that he had been trying a long training block to maintain and improve his physical fitness ahead of a busy year.

The tournament break has allowed Thygesen to return to full fitness ahead of the multi-sport event this month.

- It has been a big training block which I have never tried before. But the most important thing now is that Sara is ready, and I am feeling confident about her, he said.

- We have a lot of sparring with the other players back home so we will get some good match practice before the multi-sports, Nøhr revealed.

- I have been doing a lot of physical training, and normally we have a lot of tournaments, so it is not easy to fit these blocks in.


Points are important

The player who will compete to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo has World Ranking points at the forefront of his mind.

Nøhr however, does know there are other positive impacts that the European Games will have on him going forward in badminton.

- It is a big motivation. The top players are here from every European nation is going because they know that points are so important right now, the Dane said following the draw.

- For us, we are a little bit behind due to Sara’s injury, so we have not got many points in the last few months, so we are very hungry for points, he continued.

- Not just the points are important though, we need to keep going for our development.

- The European Games is ranked very high on our schedule. Of course, points are really needed but also the European Games and the structure is really needed for us, Nøhr concluded.


You can check out all of the five draws here
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