Ukraine won a medal at the European Badminton Championship for the first time in history

The Ukrainian women’s badminton team won a medal at the European Championships for the first time in history. The Ukrainians won bronze in the team tournament, which was held in Istanbul from February 11 to 15.

This is the first medal in the history of Ukraine at the adult European Badminton Championship.

The Ukrainian team qualified for the championship during the qualifying round in December 2025 in England. The team includes Polina Bugrova, Yevheniya Kantemir, Maria Stolyarenko, Sofia Lavrova, Raiya Almalalkha and Anastasia Alimova. All athletes are graduates of the Kharkiv badminton school.

This year, Ukraine was represented by the youngest team of all the teams in the tournament. The average age of the team is 20 years old: the youngest player, Raia Almalalysi, is only 17 years old, and the oldest, Polina Bugrovia, is 22.

In the group stage, the Ukrainian national team took second place in its group. The Ukrainian women beat Estonia and Germany with a score of 4:1, but lost to Denmark – 0:5. It was the Danish team that became the Ukrainian women’s opponent in the semi-finals.

In the match for the final, the Ukrainian team lost 0:3 and won the historic bronze medal of the championship. The closest to victory was 22-year-old Polina Bugrova, who played a tense match against Line Kjersfeldt Heimark, but lost in two games – 19:21, 17:21.

Thanks to this result, the Ukrainian women’s national team qualified for the first time for the most prestigious world women’s team tournament – the Uber Cup, which will be held from April 23 to May 3, 2026 in Horsens (Denmark).

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