A new year is coming to an end. So we end in style, this week, with a final recap of what happened on the bad planet… The last of the year…
King’s Cup – Alex en bronze
Our little badminton prince has gone to king’s land. For the second year, Alex Lanier was invited to the invitational tournament of Mr Lin Dan himself, with only 8 very talented players competing for this extraordinary tournament, played in Shenzhen, China. Alex lost in the semi-final against Shi Yuqi, in two sets, after beating the Canadian Victor Lai in the quarters. He will finish on the third step of the podium after beating Jonatan Christie. This is a great way to end the year, accompanied by his family – with his mother, Agnès, to whom the organizers had given a surprise for his birthday!
Oh yes, also, notable fact, we saw Kento Momota again, and the guy still has crazy talent. He said he wouldn’t play in BWF tournaments again… and that’s a shame…
We’re ending the year with a bang.
Christo, 7th in the world. Alex, 8th. Tomi, 15th, and Arnaud, 37th. In mixed, Thom and Delphine are 5th in the world, Julien and Léa 44th. Margot and Camille, 25th. And our two duos, the Popov brothers, 20th, Eloi and Léo, 37th. Girls, in singles, it will come – for the moment, the best tricolor, Anya Tatranova is 101st. A crazy year, we tell you… And historic rankings. We talked about it, but the Thomas Cup in April looks attractive for the Blues. Three singles and two doubles, which can get a podium. Or even more, if you like… We can’t wait, really…
Juniors are a hit in Germany
Last end-of-year tournament for our juniors, with very good results just before Christmas – 12 medals in all, and titles in men’s singles (Ismaël Bouchikhi), in women’s singles (Yaëlle Barrière), in women’s doubles (Yaëlle and Anastassya Tatranova and in mixed (Anastassya and Naïm El Khadery). Among the U17s, even better with 14 medals and 3 titles, and finally, at the juniors, 3 beautiful medals including silver for Iliana Gilbert.
The retrospective of the year
Come on, for fun… We put our phone in horizontal mode (we switch, that’s it!) and we enjoy 3m30 of happiness, images of the best moments of 2025… It’s over here
The circuit begins again…
And yes, already… barely the season is over, we are already picking up the first plane tickets… It starts strong, with the Malaysian Open, a Super 1000, then India (super 750, and the Indonesia Super 500). Our Blues will be on target from the start of the year.
In Malaysia, in the first round, Christo will play Lee Cheuk Yiu, Alex, Alwi Fahran and Tomi, Nishimoto. Heavy! Thom and Delphine could meet Julien and Léa in the 2nd mixed round! The prints here. It starts on January 6.
In France, too, very quickly.
We have two big championships coming up. The Parabad nationals, du January 23 to 25, the para-badminton elite French will meet in Ponts-de-Cé (49) for a superb weekend of competition! THE tables HERE
And a few days later – from February 4 to 6, the superb Palais des Sports in Caen will welcome our best athletes – including 3 players from the world’s top 15 in singles, please… The ticket office is already open, and the show risks being quite magical…over here
And the winner is… Arnaud Lebreton. Who has nothing Breton, since he lives in the Ardennes. On the other hand, Arnaud is super happy because he won the jackpot in the Solibad raffle, and will go with the person of his choice (hey, he’ll make lots of friends at once…) to Birmingham in a VIP to go see the quarters, semis and finals of the Yonex All England. As usual, there were plenty of great prizes, happy winners, and this “Live” which lasted 2h26 also allowed us to see Christo Popov answer questions from listeners. Still so cool, our champion. And with a good head on our shoulders… See again HEREfor those who want…It was a very nice moment…
She lights up the courts with her combativeness and self-sacrifice, but also knows how to make herself heard when she is not happy. When this is the case, Léonice Huet, aka Escanor, makes it known. An attack in the metro recently pushed her to take up her pen on her social networks for truths that are good to hear. And to read. So that everyone takes responsibility. And let these facts stop. It’s unbearable, she’s right. The incivility that women endure is unbearable. The Bad Federation is also campaigning for an end to these abuses and excesses in gymnasiums, and it is about time. Read these lines from Léonice. Spin, because it is an important message…
Exactly. This is an initiative that should continue. We told you, at Badzine, our desire to highlight original local initiatives. Good ideas. Good practices. Here are two that reached us and that we wanted to highlight in this tour of the bad planet, in particular by highlighting bad in the feminine
In Aquitaine, first…
The league organized a Regional ceremony of commitment to feminizationin last December. This ceremony was designed as a highlight of recognition and promotion of the actions carried out in favor of the feminization of badminton in the region.
On this occasion, 20 leaders and clubs, from 9 departments of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, were rewarded through several categories of distinction (engagement of young leaders, clubs engaged in feminization, etc.). A very nice initiative!
Same on the Quimperlé side, also for the feminization of the workforce: It’s called the niche Bad Girly. This is a slot reserved only for young girls competing in the club. 8 years ago, the BCK only had two young girls competing (including Kathell Desmots-Chacun, anyway). They were often alone in their usual slots. Our Breton friends therefore decided to bring them together at least once a week, and it works very well: today there are more than 30 young girls competing, many of whom are now playing at the hopeful pole.
Congratulations to Yeo Jia Min, the #1 Singaporean, who said “yes” to her future husband.
Christo Popov won the 2025 World Tour Finals. It’s crazy, and we still can’t believe it…
Well, it’s the end of the year…We had a crazy year together. A truly exceptional sporting year. More and more of you have followed us… each article is read, shared, between 1000 and 2000 times. It is a great recognition for all of us, who do not count our hours writing and sharing, voluntarily, our passion. But who do it with great pleasure. Sometimes with clumsiness, or with art prints 😊 (I speak for myself, not Max, his articles are always nickel-chrome). We will try to do better. Besides, if any of you want to write for Badzine, you are welcome (redaction@badzine.net). In any case, we still published nearly 150 articles this year. Not bad 😊
We really enjoyed following this sporting year. Especially since, moreover in the news, it’s a bit of a soup of grimaces. The world is not doing great, really – even if, as die-hard optimists, we know that there is also good energy everywhere. The great leaders of this world are doubling their ingenuity to demonstrate sometimes human mediocrity… It’s quite distressing. So, we say to ourselves, that each of us can try to spread the light around us. That it’s not so bad to try to do good to those around us. On bad courts, or elsewhere. It’s a bit like our way of resisting…
You too can, with small gestures, every day. Simply tell those around you – colleagues, friends, family, lovers – that they matter, and why. Valuing others, sincerely, feels so good… For yourself too. Or simply make smiles, jokes – not even funny, it doesn’t matter – to strangers. We need to create connections, and stop scrolling on our smartphones. Because that, for sure, is stupid. Be yourself, let’s be ourselves, let’s not take ourselves seriously, let’s love life as it comes, without worrying about these things about which we can’t do much. Come on, I’ll stop, I feel like an old fool giving lessons under his breath… 😊
I wish you, on behalf of the entire Badzine team, a wonderful end to 2025. And an equally wonderful year 2026.
Raphaël Sachetat, a happy editor-in-chief 🙂
