Lukáš Kyncl - star at the Polish Open. Czechs won medals and gained valuable experience.
The traditional Para Badminton Polish Open 2022 was an excellent preparation for the Para Badminton World Championships, which will be hosted by Tokyo, Japan. Lukáš Kyncl, who will be the only one going to this year's World Championships, succeeded in three disciplines and also won the most valuable title alongside Anna Wolna in the mixed doubles.
Zakopane, which is otherwise known more as the main Polish centre of skiing disciplines, hosted a well-established handicapped tournament from 6 countries, mainly with the participation of Polish and Czech representatives. Our northern neighbours showed that they are still a bit ahead of us in Para-Badminton, which can be seen in the final results.
Nevertheless, the Czech colours also managed to score one valuable triumph. Lukáš Kyncl has recently continued his cooperation with Anna Wolny from Poland, which is bearing fruit right from the start. "This discipline was a highlight for me. We have already had a few tournaments, but I would say that it was only here that we started to feel each other more on the court and support each other in our game. We fought for every ball and won the gold medal in a very exciting final," said the satisfied member of Badminton Sharks Brno after winning the final against the pair of Natalia Grzyb, Jakub Sikorski 21:19, 23:21.
The man, who is preparing for his first World Championships next month, also won a medal in the singles, in which he fought unsuccessfully for the final with Franek Nalborczyk. "The French player was beyond my strength. I need to work on more confidence in my strokes and read the game better," said Kyncl, who had a tough schedule in Poland, taking part in three events. And it was also in doubles that he managed to achieve bronze success, paired with Simon Kral. "It's a pleasure to play with him and to see his passion, his bravado and sometimes even his cheekiness. Even though he is a much younger player, I have a lot to learn from him," said Tomáš Vovs' ward very sympathetically.
Kyncl's doubles partner Šimon Král also added interesting observations and immediately knew what he wanted to work on in the future. "I would like to improve in singles so that I can also fight for medals," the young para-badminton player alluded to the medal successes of his friends. Apart from a medal in doubles, he also claimed his second bronze when he teamed up with Poland's Magdalena Kozera. "My teammate and I won the bronze despite communication difficulties," appreciated another medal for King despite the unusual obstacle.
It was only the second appearance at an international tournament for Kamil Šnajdar. He made a nice second place, although after the event he spoke modestly about the luck factor. "It was the first tournament abroad for me, so I didn't really know what to expect. The first day was difficult to get used to the unfamiliar hall, but from Saturday onwards it was no problem. The event was very well organized, there were a lot of players there that I could play with. It was a great school for me to find out how to play in such tournaments and to play with much better Para-Badminton players than me. I am very happy that I was lucky to make it to the final," said another Czech participant of Para Badminton Polish Open 2022.
Tomas Voves, the coach of the Czech players and a great promoter of Para-Badminton, went into a more comprehensive evaluation. He is in the form of his life and we will work on fine-tuning his game actions and increasing the intensity in the game exercises before we leave for the World Championships in Japan. Although qualification itself is already a great achievement, we want to be ready to perform at our best. Kamil Snajdar has already won a friendly tournament at the summer camp, and reached the singles final in Poland. Still, I consider him a doubles specialist. Šimon Král is a great promise for Czech para-badminton, not only in European but also in world competitions. Luděk Benada with his great training discipline is showing better and better performances. Miloš Bauer has been training with us for a short time, but he is already showing determination to compete and a desire to win," the representative of Badminton Sharks Brno summed up the performances of the Czech players.
The news and the following programme of the representatives were then presented by Pavla Grycová, who is responsible for the organizational part of Czech parabadminton. "We are intensively trying to expand the starting field for the Czech Para Badminton Open 2023. Our goal is to attract players from more than 10 countries. We are also preparing our own ranking for open championships outside the BWF calendar. Our players are still limited by material equipment in the form of old or unsuitable carts. Czech players need 5 new sports carts, one of which costs 130k. CZK 130. Before the first ever World Championships for the Czech Republic, Lukáš Kyncl and Tomáš Vovs are preparing intensively on the courts and in the gym. They supplement this with regeneration and of course rehabilitation," Grycová concluded her talk.
Now all that is left is to wish the Voves - Kyncl pair good luck for their final preparation for the World Championships in Tokyo, which will be the first ever participation of a Czech para-badminton player at a truly top event.