lauren todt [badminton]

[November 1, 2009]

Herlev played our 3rd team match this past weekend after a long month-long break without any team matches. We won against Greve 7-6, but it wasn't a good match for me as I lost both of my matches. I lost in singles to Mette Poulsen, a young Danish talent and fellow IBA trainee who already looks and plays like a senior player. The score in the first set was 21-19, I don't know why infosport shows 21-10. The doubles we also lost to Mette and a Russian girl who is also at the IBA. But it was a good win for the team, and it gave us two important points towards the overall standings.

Next weekend I'm off to Birmingham, England, to coach a boot camp for the Activ Sports club (http://www.activsports.co.uk/) while staying with good friends who are part of the group that runs the club. And the weekend after there's another team match, where we'll commute halfway across Denmark to play against Højbjerg.

The full results of the team match are here: http://www.infosport.dk/cgi-bin/MMS.dbf/kddny.hms?kn=00221826&fb=DBF&rk=2.division.

Current standings here: http://www.infosport.dk/cgi-bin/MMS.dbf/stilling.hms?pu=P004964&fb=DBF&rk=2.division.

[October 20-25, 2009]

I competed in the Denmark Open in Odense, playing in the qualification. I lost in my first match to a fellow IBA player, Solenn Pastural from England. Itwas a good match, but a disappointing draw because it meant that our coach (Michael Kjeldsen) couldn't coach either of us. I have been looking forward to working with Michael in a tournament situation but that will have to wait until the Irish International in December.

Here is a link to the results: http://tournamentsoftware.com/sport/draw.aspx?id [=D] C4CD6A1-2500-4DC4-876C-1E2062DA09FD&draw=42.

[October 3, 2009]

Herlev/Hjorten had a tough time in Odense when we lost 2-11 to Odense's second team. Their first team plays in the first division. I lost both of my matches in three close sets. The full results are here: http://www.infosport.dk/cgi-bin/MMS.dbf/kddny.hms?kn=00221822&fb=DBF&rk=2.division. It was a hard match for the team, especially since 3 of of players, 2 of whom play on this first team, have gone abroad as part of the 'Danish Badminton Inspiration Team', traveling in parts of Europe and Asia until December promoting badminton. But everyone did their best and there were a lot of matches lost in 3 sets and it's always hard to play away. So now it's back to practice and preparing for the next competitions.

Our next team match isn't until October 31. So I know what I'll be doing on Halloween!

I was supposed to play an EBU tournament in Cyprus this week (Oct. 8-11), but due to unforseen circumstances my coach and I agreed that it didn't make sense to go anymore. So this weekend is open, but next weekend there is another Danish Senior M tournament.

[September 25-26, 2009]

This weekend there was a Danish Senior M tournament at the Kastrup-Magleby Badmintonklub (KMB), and I finished in second place, which is a really great result for me. This is the hall my academy practices in every morning, so you could say I had home-court advantage - for the first two matches. KMB actually has two halls, a 5-court normal hall and then a 3-court hall built for their Badmintonligaen team matches (the highest division), which are routinely shown live on TV. The first 3 rounds were held in both halls but I only played in the normal one, and the semi and the final were both in the TV hall, but sadly with no TV.

The results in the form of breakdowns of the rounds is here: http://www.infosport.dk/cgi-bin/MMS.dbf/result_duel.hms?stv=S01592635&fbBF&os=S01200984&dnrS.

The academy's announcement of my result is here: http://intbadaca.dk/index.php/lauren-todt-runner-up-in-kmb/.

[September 19, 2009]

Herlev/Hjorten defeated Greve with a score of 7-6 in our very first team match of the season. I won both of my matches, WS and WD, quite easily against young girls from Greve. This is Greve's second team, their first team plays in the highest division, and it tells you something about the strength of their club on the men's side that they have former World Number 1 and Olympian Jens Eriksen playing for their second team. It was a bit surreal. The full results are here: http://www.infosport.dk/cgi-bin/MMS.dbf/kddny.hms?kn=00221818&fbBF&rk=2.division. It was a close match, and it came down to the last men's doubles. Our club was very satisfied with the win as they had struggled a lot in the first division last season. This season is off to a great start. Kom så HHB!!

Lauren maintains a seperate blog where she updates regularly on everything. This includes: training, team matches and tournaments/competitions, thoughts on Denmark and living in Copenhagen, and random musings and music links.

Please visit (and revisit!) Lauren's blog at http://laurenidenmark.blogspot.com/.