The Tournament’s Expectations

 The Youth Deaf Championships just started today! 

Every coach and every player has different expectations as well as fears.

James Etlin from England says he's a coach for 20 years now - ' My toughest challenge as a coach is that despite having an amazing and hard-working group, they all live miles away, so it's very hard to get them together . They meet only four times a year as a group, and that's only when we train together as a team. ' - Each of his team members lives somewhere else in England, they all train a lot individually, but there's a lack of team work. - ' My expectations and goals are to win one of the medals. It would be fantastic . ' - He laughs and then says - ' The biggest challengers might be Russians. Very good team, but we will fight very hard . "

For the honors of Spain, in the championship will compete only one sportsman - young athlete Adriana Rissi Garsia. She arrived in Slovakia with her trainer Kurt Rissi, who is also her father. Family just want to have fun! - " First of all, we want to have fun! The second one is to be competitive and the third one is to take a medal! It's a challenge for us . " - Adriana is 16 years old. She's been playing since she was 8 years old. They explained that they had received a call from the deaf federation to participate in this championship. It is only one player because in Spain there are no deaf badminton players. Usually she gets to play with people without hearing disabilities. The one problem she has is that she can not hear a signal to start game unless she uses hearing aids. - 'We are looking forward to the start of the competition! - Both say with visible excitement.

Next people are talking with two Irish players. They say that this is their first time on championships and they are very excited to be the part of it. Both men share a great sense of humor, laughing around and being excited. They say they have no coach, they train each other and they're here to win it, despite wanting to have fun - ' We want to win every second of the competition, but we also really want to win a medal. '- On the question if they are afraid of any team, they say -' No. The other teams should be afraid of us ' - Both laughing.

Most of players have huge expectations about winning the medals, same with a player from Lithuania – ‘I really want to win a medal.’ – He says there’s only four people in his team and he train every single day. On the question if he’s feeling nervous he answers positively saying – ‘Every single player in the competition feels a little nervous and I think that’s normal’.  – He smiles and thanks for the interview.

Ali from Turkey says that he strongly believes that his team will win. He also feels confident about winning the medal. – ‘I spend between 2 and 3 hours daily on training with my team, so I know that we can do it.’ – He also says that there can not be a championship without excitement, which is how he is feeling right now. He also admits that when he was taking part in a youth championship in Sofia in Bulgaria, he won a gold medal, which is what he is hoping to repeat here in Slovakia. 

‘The biggest challenge for us is to get the gold medal and reach the first place, just as the French team did in the World Cup 2018’- Says Campeggia Sebastien, the coach of French badminton team. The French team is rather excited about the championship. Their coach clarifies that in total there are two adult and two youth sportsmen in the team. Although, it will be the first time for the youth sportswomen of the team, the players feel prepared – ‘It might be a bit different for our youth players since they are not familiar with other teams and their players. Our goal is to be at least in the top five, and to reach semi-final with our adult players.’ – The French team feels prepared for the championship because of players hard-work and training, at least three times in a week, as well as their previous experience with competitions that was being held every weekend. They have also been previously attending the French Deaf Badminton Championship. 

 The Ukrainian team is also very excited for the upcoming matches. They feel ‘very prepared’ and as the coach Viktoriia Semeniuta says – ‘Winning the gold medal is our dream’ – The team is looking forward to the 1^st Youth Deaf Championship since they have trained young players as well. And both youth and seniors showed remarkable skills during their training sessions. As the coach shared, they all have trained hard for this tournament, ‘daily training around 2-3 hours a day’.

Russian team feels confident and believes that they can win the competition. However, as for youth championship they are not completely sure because it’s the first time –'Nobody knows how the competition will go because it’s the first time for them. We don’t have so many information about other youth athletes’ – Said Russian team coach Alexey Kopeykin. So, because Russian team believes that they can reach the finals, it will take a lot of effort for them to be able to win all these matches. In this competition, only four men and four women can take a part. Russian coaches believe that their team can defeat any obstacle to succeed.

We also met Finja Rosendahl from Germany, who is going to participate in the youth Championship. We spoke to her Trainer, Julian Lokau, who is excited about the upcoming event. Since it’s the first European Deaf Championship in Badminton, he doesn‘t know much about the other participants, therefore they haven‘t set any goals yet – besides „having fun!“. Young girl is a promising talent who is training on a regular daily basis, since she is the member of a Sport Squad Programme in Germany. According to her Trainer, she is very talented for her age. Unfortunately, German Team is struggling with the line-up due to certain payment related issues. Even though the team might be smaller than expected, watch out for Team Germany!

Every country has set completely different but similar goals for the championship. Every player seems to be motivated and hungry for the success. Wait and see the results!

Interviewers & Authors: 

Elena Kurshuk

Arek Ciechacki

Monika Tehrani

Myriam Oualha

Paul Frees

Sergey Nishpal

Mladiinfo Slovakia