Sweden retains title in scenes of controversy
DEN BOSCH, The Netherlands (AFP): Sweden retained its European badminton title with a 3-2 win over former champion Denmark amidst scenes of controversy and argument here Tuesday.
European junior champion Jim Laugesen ended the match by throwing his racket 25 metres to strike the edge of a spectators' balcony twenty feet up.
That happened after he and Henrik Svarrer had led 10-8 in the final game before being beaten 15-3, 5-15, 15-10 in the deciding contest by Par-Gunnar Jonsson and Jan-Erik Antonsson.
Laugesen had been faulted in the middle of a rally at 10-10 by French umpire Philip Cocagne, apparently for having a racket or a foot under the net, and had walked off the court to seek the tournament referee.
He was ordered to return by Cocagne, and on doing so, ordered to the umpire's chair where he was given a lecture.
At 1-0 in the second game there had been an even more contentious argument when Svarrer had similarly been faulted during a rally and the Dane flared up, demanding the referee be summoned.
When Cocagne did not do so, Svarrer marched up to the umpire's chair, grabbed the microphone and called himself for the referee, Dirk Kellerman of Germany.
Kellerman came on court and spoke to the player and after an interval of a minute play continued.
"I asked for the facts and explained the situation to the player," he said. "I understand the fault had been because Svarrer's foot had gone under the net."
"As for the racket throwing we can't do anything about that because it happened after the match had ended."
Fault
There had also been other "fault" decisions involving Svarrer and Antonsson, and afterwards Morten Frost, the Chief Executive of the Danish Badminton Forbund, furiously questioned the umpire.
"What were those decisions for. I could not see anything wrong," Frost, a former world number-one, fumed vigorously.
Danish team leader John Hansen commented: "I think what happened destroyed it, not only for us, but the whole match. There were umpiring mistakes which affected both the Danes and the Swedes."
The Swedes however did not comment on incidents that had principally featured Danish protests to controversial umpiring decisions.
Earlier Sweden had taken a 1-0 lead when Jonsson and Catrine Bengtsson won the mixed-doubles in straight games against Jens Eriksen and Anne-Mette Bille, but world number two Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen levelled it at 1-1 by beating Tomas Johansson 15- 9,17-18,15-6.
Denmark then went 2-1 up when world number-five Camilla Martin beat Astrid Crabo comfortably in straight games, but Sweden came back to make it 2-2 in the women's doubles.
That happened when the China-born Lim Xiaoqing and the Uganda- born Christine Magnusson won 15-7,15-2 against Lotte Olsen and Marlene Thomsen.
This set the scene for an exciting but ultimately flawed decider in which for the second European championships in succession Jonsson helped win the deciding contest for Sweden.
Earlier England had won the bronze medal by beating Russia 4- 1, with former European Masters champion Anders Nielsen beating the former world quarter-finalist Andrei Antropov 8-15,1 5-5, 15- 8.