The 8th European Universities Badminton Championships have finally concluded on Saturday, June 25 with a spectacular closing ceremony at the Lokomotive Sports Hall of Kharkov – Ukraine. 

111 participants from 24 universities from 7 countries took part in this year’s edition of the event.
 

In the team event final the title of champion went to Far Eastern State Technical University Vladivostok who won an exciting final against the Dnipropetrovsk National Metallurgical Academy of Ukraine. In the final the Vladivostok with their matchups Dremin / Dimova and Grachev managed to win the first two matches. Ulitina won the Women’s Singles and brought back some hope to the home spectators. These hopes were crushed by the solid Men’s Doubles performance of Dremin / Grachev. After their win the Russian delegation celebrated their team event title enthusiastically.

The final ranking of the teams is as follows:

1st place: Far Eastern State Technical University Vladivostok
2nd place: Dnipropetrovsk National Metallurgical Academy (UKR) 
shared 3rd place: National Technical University “Kharkov Polytechnical Institute” (UKR)
shared 3rd place: Nizhny Novgorod State University (RUS)
shared 5th place: TU Muenchen (GER)
shared 5th place: University of Bordeaux (FRA)
shared 5th place: STAPS Orsay (FRA)
shared 5th place: University of  Bern (SUI)
9th place: University of Duisburg-Essen (GER)
10th place: University of Saarland (GER)
shared 11th place: University of Rouen(FRA)
shared 11th place: University of Geneva (SUI)
shared 13th place: University of Minho (POR)
shared 13th place: University of Nantes (FRA) 
shared 13th place: University of Muenster (GER) 

The individual event took place from Thursday to Saturday.

The Mixed Double was won by Evgeny DREMIN / Evgeniya DIMOVA (Far Eastern State Technical University Vladivostok, Russia) in two sets (21:15, 21:15) against Till ZANDER / Astrid HOFFMANN (University of Hamburg, Germany) as the outplayed their opponents in the midcourt area. The bronze medals were won by Georgiy NATAROV / Anna KOBTSEVA (National Technical University “Kharkov Polytechnical Institute”, Ukraine) and Stepan YAROSLAVTSEV / Anastasia CHERVIAKOVA (Nizhny Novgorod State University, Russia).

Dmytro ZAVADSKYY (Kharkov Polytechnical Institute, Ukraine) dominated the Men’s Singles and won with 21:16 and 21:13 against the newcomer Lucas CLAERBOUT (University of Bordeaux, France) and earned his first men’s single title at the EUC Badminton. The bronze medals were won by Sylvain TERNON (University of Rouen, France) and Denis GRACHEV (Far Eastern State Technical University Vladivostok, Russia).



In the following Ladies Singles Kim BUSS (University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany) with her 10th match defeated point local hero Olena PRUS (Kharkov Polytechnical Institute, Ukraine) 21:13, 19:21, 24:22 by mixing long and exhausting rallies and deceptive shots against her. The bronze medals were won by the teammates Maria ULITINA and Natalia VOITSEKH (both from the Dnipropetrovsk National Metallurgical Academy of Ukraine).



In the Men’s Doubles Dmytro ZAVADSKYY won his second title with his partner Vitaliy KONOV (Kharkov Polytechnical Institute, Ukraine) in the closest of all final matches. Against the Russians Evgeny DREMIN / Denis GRACHEV (Far Eastern State Technical University Vladivostok, Russia) they succeeded with 21:18:21, 15:21 and 26:24 and managed to repeat their title from the previous event in Nancy - France. The bronze medals were won by Antoine BEBIN / Sylvain Termon DROSTE (University of Rouen, France) and the Swiss brothers Christoph HEINIGER / Thomas HEINIGER (University of Berne, Switzerland).



In The last final of this year’s tournament the locals Anna KOBTSEVA / Olena PRUS from Kharkov Polytechnical Institute dominated the Ladies Doubles and won with 21:13 and 21:14 versus Maria ULITINA / Natalia VOITSEKH (Dnipropetrovsk National Metallurgical Academy of Ukraine). The bronze medals were won by Kim BUSS / Laura UFERMANN (University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany) and Mona REICH / Sandra EMRICH (University of Mainz, Germany)

Medals and awards were presented by Mr. Dinos Pavlou, EUSA EC member assisted by Mr. Bastian Kruse, EUSA Technical Delegate for Badminton and the Referee Lajos Csanda.

At the end the EUSA flag was passed to the University of Uppsala - Sweden which will organize the 9th EUC Badminton in 2013. The next badminton event will take place within the 1st European Universities Games in Cordoba – Spain from July 10 to July 23 2012 where all teams are warmly welcomed to join.

Beside the wonderful organized tournament and the kind and helpful volunteers the students enjoyed their stay in Kharkov very much. The EUC Badminton will give the Students Sports Union of Ukraine and Badminton in Ukraine a great boost.

More information can be found at www.eubc2011.com and all results can be found under www.tournamentsoftware.com.