The 8th European Universities Championship (EUC) Badminton, which will be hosted by the National Technical University “Kharkov Polytechnical Institute” will take place from the 21st to the 25th of June in Kharkov, Ukraine.

The Ukrainian team gratefully overtook the event from the University of Thessaloniki, Greece who had to cancel the event last December due to the financial crisis in their country. The new Organizing Committee is the team which successfully organized the Ukrainian International Open in the past two years, so that we are looking forward to an excellent edition of the 8th EUC.

On Tuesday and Wednesday 16 Universities from all over Europe will compete in the team event. Unfortunately the team event had late withdrawals from our regular participants from the United Kingdom and Poland. Therefore the organizing Kharkov Polytechnical Institute, where most players of the Ukrainian national team study and train are the tournament favourites in the team event. The team event will be played in four round robin groups, followed by a knockout stage.

The team event will be followed by the individual event which takes place from Thursday till Saturday. The individual event will be played in single knock out format. All matches will be played at the sports centre Lokomotive in Kharkov.

EUSA Technical Delegate, Mr Bastian Kruse reports on his recent inspection visit: “Our Ukrainian friends welcomed me with very warmhearted, and we had a great weekend in Kharkov. Beside the excellent preparation of the event we had time to visit the city. In Summertime the cityscape with the broad streets and the alleys will be great, a lot of students will be out there in summer.” He was also very impressed by the Organising Committee, and their professionalism since the National Technical University Kharkov Polytechnical Institute took part in the EUC since Mainz 2005, where they came all the long way with the bus. Since 2009 the OC organizes Badminton Europe events and the Ukrainian national team studies and trains in Kharkov. Mr Kruse continues: “I believe that Kharkov can be a great impression of East European culture for the participating students as Europe is growing together very fast. In addition I believe it will be a great event and hosting it will give the Ukrainian University Sports Federation a greet boost.”

You may find more information about the championship at www.eubc2011.com.