Another Regional Project in the Balkan region has successfully been completed with the support of Badminton Europe. The project, which was for U15 junior players, was held in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 14-20 July. 26 players from 6 countries attended the training camp in the lovely Široki Brijeg, in the Bosnian & Herzegovinian mountains, near the city of Mostar.

The Balkan countries sending their players and coaches to the camp were: Bosnia & Hercegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania and Serbia.

For 2 days the participants had the nice surprise of being visited by Tom Bacher, President of Badminton Europe. The young players enjoyed his presence in the hall, where he was in the middle of the players, helping them with advices.

During his stay in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Tom Bacher visited, together with Corina Dan (Badminton Europe’s Director for Public Relations) and Brane Srdic (President of BiH Badminton Federation) the head office of the Bosnia & Herzegovina’s NOC where they met one of the three BiH NOC’s presidents, Mr. Siniša Kisic. Together they discussed the possibilities of supporting badminton development activities in the country.

The place where the badminton camp in Široki Brijeg was held had beautiful conditions for badminton training and recreation. Other activities besides training on court were swimming and jogging in the woods. Players and coaches worked hard, shoulder by shoulder, together with the 2 main coaches Silvio Jurcic (Croatia) and Corina Dan (Romania). On the last day of the camp a singles competition was organized, where everybody fought ambitiously for a good result.

During the week the children celebrated one player’s birthday and made a lot of new friendships. At the end of the week, at the departure, a lot of tears ran down the players’ faces, but they haven’t given up the hopes of seeing each other again in the near future.

Director for Public Relations