by Ian Marshall, Editor

In the title deciding contest, they posted a 3-0 win in opposition to Poland’s Maciej Kubik, Samuel Kulczycki and Jan Zandecki; the success coming after they had surrendered their only match in the second phase of play.

Facing Germany’s Kirill Fadeev, Daniel Rinderer and Kay Stumper, a 3-1 margin of victory was the order of proceedings, the one player to cause the champions elect problems being Kay Stumper. In the opening match of the fixture he beat Jo Yokotani 9-11, 11-4, 11-9, 11-8) to give the European outfit a ray of hope.

However, later in the contest, he was not able to repeat the feat against Hiroto Shinozuka in the duel that brought the meeting to an end. He experienced a five games defeat (11-13, 11-1, 5-11, 11-4, 11-8); notably in the second match the engagement, Hiroto Shinozuka had accounted for Kirill Fadeev (11-7, 11-9, 7-11, 11-5).

Imposing, earlier at the quarter-final stage, it had been even more imposing, the Japanese duo had recorded a 3-0 in opposition to the combination of Belgium’s Louis Laffineur who joined forces with Sweden’s Martin Friis and Jonathan Thimion.

“We are very happy! In our first match, we were very nervous but match after match, it was better. For the final, we arrived in a very good condition, physically and mentally. The most difficult match was against the team of Russia in groups, we won 3-2.” Hiroto Shinozuka

Impressive from Japan, in the opposite half of the draw it had been impressive from Poland. In the quarter-final round they had secured a 3-1 win against the outfit formed by Ireland’s Owen Cathcart, Norway’s Borgar Haug and Finland’s Alex Naumi, before in the penultimate round recording the same margin of victory when facing Belgium’s Nicolas Degros, Olav Kosolosky and Adrien Rassefosse.

Matters conclude on Sunday 14th April when the individual titles in the cadet age group events will be decided.