The Corredoria Arena pavilion in the capital of Oviedo was the venue for the Spanish U19 Championship, which was attended by the young girl from Soria Daniela Corchón, from the Soria-CS24 Badminton Club, who had an excellent tournament to the point of being proclaimed runner-up in Spain in double mixed and bronze medal in the individual category.
Daniela did not start out as a serious candidate for medals, but she did so with the determination and preparation to be able to do something great in the most important competition on the national calendar.
Daniela’s ambition led her to play in all three modalities, which in addition to facing matches of a high technical level, had to overcome the physical effort to play ten games and a total of six hours and two minutes of effective play.
It was in the mixed doubles, the only test in which he started as fifth seed, where he obtained his best performances. The round of 16 match against an Asturian couple was one of the most complicated, having to come back from four match points to win 22-20 in the third set.
Together with Alejandro Gállego from Huesca, they increased their level of play to reach the final, winning all their matches by two sets to zero. With the handicap of not being able to train together, the greater collaboration of their rivals in the final was key for the victory to go to Asturian rackets and thus become runners-up in Spain.
Both are first-year players in the under-19 category, so they will be the big favorites in any event next season.
In her journey through the singles table she had to face the first player in the ranking whom she defeated by two sets to one with a plethora of third sets that ended with a 21-9 in favor of the Soriana. Already in the semifinals, against the third favorite, she was very close to forcing the third set when she was defeated 21-18 against a player from Alicante.
Her performances in the women’s doubles alongside the Navarrese Ainhoa Larraya were also very positive. Both got rid of a Galician couple in the round of 16, second favorites to fall in the next round against the future runners-up.
Victor Ortega, coach of the Soria-CS24 Badminton Club, was tremendously proud of the attitude and level of his player who became one of the sensations of the Championship.
In addition to her great physical condition and fantastic innate conditions for badminton, Daniela’s effort, sacrifice and discipline have led her to achieve these achievements while belonging to a club as modest as Soriano.
The Soriana’s next challenge will be her participation in the Portuguese Open to begin the 2025 season as one of the strongholds of her club in its participation in the First Division National League.
The weekend was completed with the participation of the absolute Jorge Peñaranda in the territorial test in Vitoria. Jorge returned with two medals, silver in the men’s doubles with Francisco Javier Baquedano from Estella and bronze in the singles category. With this tournament Jorge ends the season with a good feeling after having been away from the courts due to several injuries.
