The finals of the 2014 Romanian International took place on Sunday with five different nationalities claiming the top step of the podium. With the exception of men’s singles top seed Misbun Ramdan all other newly crowned Romanian International champions were unseeded in an action packed finals day in the ‘Constantin Jude’ hall in Timisoara.

Scottish duo Cooper and Campbell climbed the first step of the podium in the first final of the day with victory over French duo Kersaudy and Vignes Waran in two games. The Scots had a fantastic tournament just dropping a singles set en route to the title in what has been a long wait for a title for Jillie Cooper. The bubbly Scot even had time for a kiss with her long time childhood friend as it was Campbell’s auntie who first introduced Cooper to badminton at the age of 9.

“I have not won since 2008 so this is certainly a monkey off my back” said the Scot. “We played well this week and we were relaxed.  Our communication was excellent from the very start which helped with our rhythm and I knew if we played to our potential we would win. We have been friends forever so this makes this win all the more special”

Delphine Lansac shed tears of joy

French youngster Delphine Lansac shed tears of joy on the podium as she added the Romanian title to the Irish future series title she won back in October. As in Ireland, Hungary’s Laura Sarosi stood in the way of Lansac’s title bid and the battling French starlet saved 6 games points before taking the first set 22-20. With the momentum at her back Lansac went on to take the second game 21-14 and the first International series win of her young career.

Like Lansac top seed Misbun Ramdan was close to losing the title going down in the opening game 21-15 against Poland’s Adrian Dziolko. The Malaysian, a proven winner on the Badminton Europe circuit, was keen to add the Romanian title to the Irish Open title he won in December. Misbun took the second game 21-18 before closing out the match with a 21-16 win in the deciding game.

An all-German affair in the women's doubles

In what was the shortest final of the day Croatia’s Durkinjak and Hoelbling took just half an hour to beat French pair Kersaudy and Mittelheisser, the young French guns second defeat of the day while in an all-German match up Barbara Bellenberg and Ramona Hacks defeated Franziska Volkmann and Kira Kattenbeck to wrap up the women’s doubles title.

For full results from Romania click HERE.

Article by Mark Phelan. Photo by BadmintonPhoto.