Gold On The Line – Day 5: European Games

Gold On The Line – Day 5: European Games
Doubles delight for Selena Piek.

The form women’s doubles pairs of the competition will fight it out in the final of the European Games later today.

Unseeded Chloe Birch/Lauren Smith have carried their momentum from the Sudirman Cup and have been unstoppable in Minsk.

They defeated France’s third seeds Emilie Lefel/Anne Tran 21-13 21-13 for a place in the final.

“We have been very dominating in our matches until today and we wanted to do the same. We knew we needed to bring our best.

“We needed to make the court big for them and really expose their movement and I think we did that well today,” Smith said.

They will meet fourth seeds Selena Piek and Cheryl Seinen of the Netherlands who were too good for Russian second seeds Ekaterina Bolotova and Alina Davletova 18-21 22-20 21-14.

“We kept fighting for every point and you could see [in the second game] they got nervous. They made a nervous mistake at 19-19 and smashed it wide.

Happy Dutch ready for the final

Posted by Badminton Europe on Friday, June 28, 2019

 

“So, I said to Cheryl: ‘Come on, they are nervous as well’.

“Maybe we also had some luck and in the third game we manage to take the lead and walk away with the win,” Piek said.

The final is at 6pm Minsk time.

In men’s doubles, Denmark’s top seeds Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen will play second seeds Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge for the gold medal.

Great Britain’s Ellis and Langridge have before shown they are capable of bringing their best at a multi-sport event claiming bronze at the Rio Olympics 2016 and winning gold at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games 2018.

They were too good for Jelle Maas/Robin Tabeling 21-18 21-16 in their semifinal.

“We are both pleased with the way we played. We stuck to the game plan for 75 per cent of the time and I think that was effective for us today,” Langridge said.

The current European champions Astrup and Rasmussen defeated 2015 silver medallists Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov 21-17 21-17 to also progress.

“I am very pleased to play at this level again. I can say, I truly enjoyed it today. It is not always fun to be on the court. Sometimes you feel a lot of pressure but today we enjoyed it, and it was very fun,” Astrup said.

“We have never been at a multi-sport event before and to perform at a place like this has been very important for us. It’s not every day that you are in a final,” Rasmussen added.

Catch the men’s doubles final LIVE on Olympic Channel from 7pm Minsk time.

Ellis and Smith will also feature in the mixed doubles semifinals on Day 6 and are one of two Great Britain pairs in the final four – joining top seeds Chris and Gabrielle Adcock.

Ellis/Smith play France’s Thom Gicquel/Delphine Delrue, while it will be husband-wife versus brother-sister when the Adcocks take on Sam and Chloe Magee of Ireland.

Women’s Doubles Results: https://bit.ly/2ZWPZao

Men’s Doubles Results: https://bit.ly/2Yieuyl

Mixed Doubles Results: https://bit.ly/2xhPdbH

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