6th ICO Crossminton European Championships 2018 powered by Speedminton
Date: July 26th 2018 – July 29th 2018
Venue: Skien Fritidspark, Skien, Norway
Organiser: Crossminton Norway
Championships Director: Erik Damstuen Brandt
Head Umpire:
Brief Report:
ELÌŠKA ANDRLOVA AND PETR MAKRLÌK JR WIN IN SKIEN
196 participants from 15 different nations battled for medals in 13 categories. The nation with the most gold medals was Czechia with golds in Open Division, Open Doubles, Women singles and U18 girls. The tournament was played on 15 crossminton courts, all under the same roof in a big handball arena at Skien Fritidspark, the greatest area for sport facilities in all of Norway.
A total of 473 matches were played during three days, with only semifinals and finals played on the last day. The organizers wanted to give all categories equal attention during this day, and established 2 courts surrounded by tribunes – in order to make a great atmosphere for the final matches. Some really interesting matches and fast rallies were seen during the final day, and it’s safe to say that the level of the players is getting higher and higher for each year.
With many new names emerging, it was established players that ruled the Open Division. World Nr. 1 Petr Makrlik jr from Czechia showed superb form from the beginning of the tournament and won a high-quality final match against the legend of crossminton, Per Hjalmarson from Sweden, with surprising ease. Bronze medals were won by Cyril Peltier from France and Melker Ekberg from Sweden. Marklik jr also won the Open Doubles in pair with Daniel Knofliček, Anja Rolfes and Andrea Horn (GER) won the Women’s Doubles and Rebecca Nielsen and Melker Ekberg (SWE) won the Mixed Doubles.
In the Women’s category, European Champion title was won by 18 year old Eliška Andrlova, also from Czechia. With precision and high quality crossminton, she defeated Marta Urbanik from Poland in the final and took the title in her first year of playing senior competition. Santa Paegle of Latvia and Rebecca Nielsen of Sweden finished in 3rd position. With the world number 1 Jasmina Keber out with an injury this year, it was a great chance for the young Czech player and she did a perfect job.
In junior categories, Eliška’s younger sister Anna won the U18 category, David Takacs (HUN) won the U18 boys category and U18 doubles with David Szalai, while Pika Rogelj (SVN) and Adrian Janczunski (LTU) won the U14 girls and boys categories.
In senior categories, the title of European Champion was won by Edit Osvay (HUN) and Morten Påsche (NOR) in O40 female and male categories, while Laszlo Racz won the O50 male category.
Results:
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