Baku: The badminton men’s doubles event was previously considered one of Denmark’s safest medal at the European Games in Azerbaijan, and tournament favorites Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen of Denmark again further solidified their chances of nabbing a gold for their country after they were able to live up to expectations and have successfully rolled past Gaetan Mittelheisser and Bastian Kersaudy of France on Thursday, winning 21-16, 21-17 to reach the Baku 2015 men’s doubles semifinals.
When both Danish women’s shuttler, Anna Thea Madsen and Line Kjær Feldt to face-off in the women’s singles semi-finals, Denmark have guaranteed to win at least a bronze in women’s singles.
Ireland also made major badminton progress in Baku on Thursday, with Scott Evans defeated Blagovest Kisyov of Bulgaria in straight-set 21-6, 21-13 in 25 minutes.
Although Irish shuttler Chloe Magee no longer competing in the women’s singles, she scored a mixed doubles win with her brother Sam on Thursday over Maltese duo Sam Cali and Fiorella Marie Sadowski 21-3 21-2 to qualify for the quarter-finals.
Meanwhile, the Magee brothers, Sam Magee alongside brother Joshua Magee were speechless when the duo beat Matijs Dierickx and Freek Golinski of Belgium in three sets 23-21, 19-21, 21-15 in the Baku Sports hall in the afternoon, sending them through to the semi-finals.
“We had a good lead in the third set. I think pressure got to them. They were the higher ranked players, they probably already thinking about the medal already, while we were playing like no pressure,” said Sam Magee.
The Magee brothers will face European champions Russia’s Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov in the semi-finals on Friday.
