On the invitation of Badminton Europe (BEC), Mr Matjaz Pecovnik, EUSA Secretary General attended the Annual BEC Awards Gala, which was organised on April 16, 2016 in Podcetrtek, Slovenia.

The event followed the BEC Members´ Forum and the Annual Delegates´ Meeting, during which new board was elected. The delegates re-elected Mr Gregory Verpoorten as BEC President.


 
The gala evening in the Congress Hall of Terme-Olimia Hotel was attended by more than 100 people. At the event, the Europe's best-performing players, coaches and technical officials of the past year were honored, and the fourth member of the Badminton Europe Hall-Of-Fame was inducted.


 
The European 2015 Award Winners are Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen (Male Player of the Year), Carolina Marin (Female Player of the Year), Anders Antonsen (European Young Player of the Year), Bartlomiej Mroz (Para-Badminton Player of the Year 2015),  Gitte Sommer (Senior Player of the Year), Carolina Marin (Women in Badminton Award), Fernando Rivas (Coach of the Year), Ernest Robinson (Technical Official of the Year). The Badminton Legend Morten Frost from Denmark was introduced in the BEC Hall Of Fame.


 
During his stay in Podcetrtek Mr Pecovnik discussed the foreseen common activities with BEC President and Secretary General as BEC and EUSA signed a cooperation agreement last year. Mr Pecovnik also met with Presidents of the National Badminton Federations of the countries to host some of the next EUSA Events. Badminton is on the programme of the European Universities Games in Zagreb-Rijeka 2016, Coimbra 2018 as well as in Belgrade 2020, while the 2017 European Universities Badminton Championship will be organized in Ljubljana.



After the award winners were announced, the BEC President Mr Verpoorten announced Prague (CZE) as the host city of the 2017 BEC Congress, where 50th Anniversary of Badminton Europe will be celebrated. More information is available on www.badmintoneurope.com.
 
[Photos by Badminton Europe and M. Stan]