For the first time in the history of the European U17 Team Event, the Danish team did not claim the gold medal, but the Danes do not shake.

Denmark, Denmark, Denmark, Denmark. When you look at the overview of the winners of the European U17 Team Championships, one nation and just one has been winning the gold medal since the very first event back in 2005. Until now.

Russia won their first ever gold medal at the U17 Team Championships beating France in the final. The Danes and Czech Republic shared the last spot at the podium.

Important to learn
Lars Uhre has been leading the Danish elite team to big wins such as the Thomas Cup title in 2016. Today he is Head of Development at Badminton Denmark, and at the 2021 European U17 Championships he is coaching the young Danish talents. For him it is not the most important thing that the Danish team return with gold team medals.

- It is not so important, which results we get at the youth level. The importance is that we learn a lot and that we develop the players in the speed and intensity they need to be ready for.

- We try to develop the players and our aim is always to try to reach the highest potential, when they are seniors, Uhre stated.

Welcoming the competition
France and Russia have been delivering good results at the Badminton Europe youth events in recent years, and Lars Uhre is pleased to see that the European rivals are on a good track.

- A lot of countries are improving like Russia and France. We struggled against Turkey and other countries, but it is only positive.

- We want good competition, and the Russians were clearly better, and that is fair enough. They did very well, Uhre said.

European flagship
Denmark will be present in 10 matches in the Round of 16 at the individual event at the 2021 European U17 Championships, and Lars Uhre believes that Denmark also in the future will be able to produce the players who can be competing for medals at the absolute top level.

- I think - as always - we have a big pool of talent. We are a small country, and we cannot constantly produce top players for five categories. We have to work with the talent we got, and I think we have done that well for decades, and I am sure we are going to continue to do that also for the coming years.

- I think Denmark will be the flagship of Europe in the future, but hopefully we will get more competition. The more competition we get in Europe, the easier it will be for all the Europeans to compete against the Asians. It is only a positive thing, if a lot of nations in Europe get a high level, Lars Uhre mentioned.