Italian champion at 15: Katharina Fink makes history

With the unexpected silver medal from Fink and Yasmine Hamza (14) in the women's doubles, the title fights in Milan have become the most successful Italian championship in the Bolzano club's history.

Giovanni Greco, a 16-year-old, once won the Italian championship title. The youngest woman to win gold was Charlotte Punter from Mals, who won in 1982 as an 18-year-old. Katharina Fink has now clearly beaten this record. Fink had to survive several marathon games of three sets before she was allowed to lift the trophy.

In the semifinals she was down 0-1 sets against Lisa Sagmeister from Mals. Fink also had to chase down in the final against long-term rival Judith Mair (also Mals), who was the same age. In the end she even won clearly with 18:21, 21:15, 21:10. The success is not completely unexpected, as Fink was number 1 in the seeding list and is currently number 6 in the European U17 rankings. “When I narrowly missed winning the tournament at an international U17 tournament in Belgium at Easter, I felt that I could do it. Now, of course, I’m overjoyed,” beamed the Bozen secondary school student. This makes Fink South Tyrol's first individual Italian champion in eleven years.

“This is a milestone for us as a club,” says section leader Claudia Gruber. “The club has done valuable development work, and in the last three years Fink has had the opportunity to grow even more and train more professionally at the South Tyrol Badminton School. That was certainly crucial. Hopefully Katharina’s success will also inspire others in the club, because there is a lot of talent coming from behind her,” says Gruber. One of them is Yasmine Hamza (14).

Together with Fink, she surprisingly won the silver medal in the women's doubles. The two women from Bolzano only had to admit defeat to the defending champions Silvia Garino and Lisa Inversen in the final and they reached the round of 16 of the European Championships two weeks ago.

South Tyrol won a total of two gold, four silver and four bronze medals in these title fights. In addition to Fink, gold also went to the men's doubles Lukas Osele and Kevin Strobl.

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Italian champion at 15: Katharina Fink makes history

What a successful run for Katharina Fink. At the age of 15, the Bolzano native took part in a general class Italian championship for the first time and immediately won gold and silver. There has never been such a young Italian champion in the 40-year history of title fights.

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