Badminton competition starts on Monday
The badminton competition of the European Games will run from today until Sunday. Nearly 160 athletes from Europe will compete at the Jaskółka arena in Tarnów. Among them will be representatives of Poland.
The stakes for the badminton players will be the medals of the European Championships and qualifications for next year’s Olympic Games in Paris. The athletes will compete in three events: singles, doubles and mixed.
The Spaniards and Bulgarians are the favourites. The most successful singles player to compete for a medal is Carolina Marin, Olympic and three-time world champion. In doubles, the best performers so far have been the duo of sisters Gabriela & Stefani Stoeva – three-time European champions.
Poland will be represented by eight players: Dominik Kwinta (singles), Wiktoria Dąbczyńska (singles), Miłosz Bochat (doubles), Robert Cybulski (doubles), Dominika Kwaśnik (doubles), Kornelia Marczak (doubles), Magdalena Świerczyńska (mixed) and Paweł Śmiłowski (mixed). Of them, Smilowski is the most experienced at an event of this rank – a two-time bronze medallist at the European Junior Championships, who, together with Swierczynska, took part in the Second European Games in Minsk.
