Carolina Marin wrote her name into Spanish badminton history books this afternoon by winning the women’s singles gold medal at the 2014 INTERSPORT European Championships. In truth Marin had already created her own bit of history by winning the bronze medal on Friday but the whole of Europe expected her to go all the way and claim the top step of the podium which she duly did.
The Spanish number ones opponent on the day was rank outsider for the title Denmark’s Anna Thea Madsen and the plucky Dane brought her fighting spirit to the finals court and made life very difficult for the new champion.
Nerves we evident early on and both players struggled to settle. After trading early points the Spanish top seed cruised to a first game win and everyone expected the Dane to roll over and die at that point.
European finals do not come along that often and Madsen’s coached must surely have reminded her of that before game two. The diminutive Dane came out fighting in the second game and stunned Marin taking the match into a deciding set.
That was as good as it got for Madsen as Marin demonstrated why she is the best player in Europe as she cruised to the title to add the senior gold to the junior title she won exactly three years ago.
“This victory is for the people of Spain and all the people who have helped me along the way.” Said an emotional Marin after her victory.
Double Gold for Pedersen as she defends her women’s doubles title
Christinna Pedersen proved to be the player of the tournament coming away from Kazan with two gold medals in the mixed and women’s doubles. Along with Joachim Fischer Nielsen she lifted the very first title of the day in mixed doubles in a match that pitted her against her doubles partner Kamilla Rytter Juhl.
“It’s tough to play against your friends and team mates and it was even tougher knowing that Kamilla was on the other side of the net and she would have to pick herself up to play the women’s doubles shortly after.”
