Kate Foo Kune and Julien Paul, mixed doubles finalists, alongside Christophe Chenut, president of the New Reunion Badminton League.
Our two Olympic qualified badminton players, Kate Foo Kune and Julien Paul, have started their series of three tournaments counting as their last phase of preparation well by heading to Paris. Yesterday, they completed their campaign by bringing home three medals, one gold and two silver, at the 9th edition of the Reunion Island International Badminton Tournament.
Several nations from the Indian Ocean region were present to challenge each other during this major competition that brought together a hundred players. For the finalists, the competition took on the appearance of a marathon since more than 200 matches were on the program over four days of competition at the Champ-Fleuri gymnasium in Saint-Denis.
Beaten in the men’s doubles final alongside his brother, Christopher, and in the mixed doubles final alongside Kate Foo Kune, Julien Paul came to this competition with the idea of shining in the men’s singles and this was achieved since he won the gold medal in this draw. “A positive result because I was aiming for the singles, which is my specialty. The men’s doubles was to accompany my brother and the mixed doubles, we knew it was going to be tough because the pair opposite is one of the best French pairs.”explains the Mauritian badminton player.
With an impressive number of matches to be played over the four days, this tournament “offered more preparation matches”. “I’m coming out of a training camp in Malaysia where I spent 3-4 weeks. We have three tournaments to play which are quite close geographically and we still have some big matches to play, which is great. Afterwards, we’ll have a short week of recovery before continuing with Paris.”explains the man who will be taking part in his second Olympics after the Tokyo 2021 Games.
Having given up on the training camp in Malaysia due to knee inflammation, Kate Foo Kune was making her return to competition after a month of rehabilitation. Beaten in the semi-finals of the women’s singles and finalist in the mixed doubles, the Mauritian was able to get back to feeling good less than a month before the start of the Paris Olympics. “I’ve been dragging around a knee injury for two months so I haven’t been able to move as I wanted. The last two days were a test to see if my knees are holding up. They held up well and I’m really happy to have done what was necessary despite the circumstances,” she says.
The two badminton players will continue this week with the Saint-Denis Réunion Open which will be played from July 3 to 7 at the Champ-Fleuri gymnasium before returning to Mauritius for the Mauritius Internationals, scheduled from July 11 to 14 at the Côte-d’Or sports complex.
2024-07-01 13:01:53
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