The new badminton year for young people started on January 24th, 2026 with the 1st E ranking tournament in Schlechtbach. Since the age group division changes at the beginning of each year, this meant for some players that they now have to play one AK higher. Were from our department Mithila Santhoshkumar (U11), Kai Widera (U11), Anton Ebert (U13), Aadhya Kumaran (U15), Rasmus Schäfer (U15), Mathis Vandamme (U17) and Simon Nieder (U19) at the start. Since over 130 participants had registered for this tournament, the game was again played with shortened sets of up to 15 without extra time.
In the morning the age groups U11 – U15 played.
Mithila started in a group of 3. Although she played well here and fought for every ball, she had to let her opponents win every time. In the game for 5th place she had to hand over the first set by a very narrow margin of 14:15 to the player from TuS Stuttgart. In the second set she ran out of strength and so it also went to her opponent.
Kai played everyone against everyone in a group of 5. Since he already had some tournament experience and was physically and playfully superior, he was able to clearly win every game. In three games he never gave up more than 10 game points to his opponents and so he deservedly became tournament winner in his AK – congratulations on that.
For Anton it was a very intense tournament. All of his games went to three sets and although he kept up well, all of the games went to his opponents. It was also very bitter that a third set was lost by a narrow margin of 14:15.
Aadhya started for the first time in the AK U15. In the first round she clearly had to leave the game to her opponent, but was able to improve over the course of the tournament. In the following match, Aadhy won a set and in the last game she had the upper hand with 15:9 and 15:9.
For Rasmus It was the first tournament participation ever. Since he also started in his AK as a younger age group, it was just a matter of familiarizing himself with the tournament process and gaining competition experience. He got better from game to game and lost his last encounter very narrowly with 15:10, 14:15 and 13:15.
In the afternoon the AK U17 and U19 started.
Also Mathis The AK changed this year. In the first round he won his game very clearly with 15:5 and 15:9. His next opponent was then superior in terms of play and there was a clear defeat. In the last game we were on equal terms and it was a game over three sets, which unfortunately was narrowly lost.
Simonwho is now starting in the AK U19, lost his first game in two sets. In the second encounter, the first set was narrowly won 15:14, before the second set went clearly to Simon 15:6. Unfortunately, the third encounter ended with the same result, but in favor of his opponent. The fact that you are on an equal footing with the other players was shown in the last encounter, which only went to the player from Feuerbach in the third set.
Placements:
ME U11 – Mithila Santhoshkumar – 6. Platz
JE U11 – Kai Widera – 1. Platz
JE U13 – Anton Ebert – 14th place
ME U15 – Aadhya Kumaran – 13. Platz
JE U15 – Rasmus Schäfer – 14th place
JE U17 – Mathis Vandamme – 15. Platz
JE U19 – Simon Nieder – 12th place
