2005 Summer School: 24th edition from 9 to 16 July in Mulheim, Germany.

The venue for the Summer School was the new Rhein Ruhr Sporthalle, recently opened in March for the 2005 Yonex German Open, it proved to be the perfect hall as it was able to accommodate such a large group. 45 players and 23 coaches attended along with 8 staff responsible for leading the various training sessions.  Martin Andersen (Denmark) was once again the School Director, he was joined by a mixture of new and familiar faces in his team that included – Alan McIlvain (Scotland), Rainer Diehl (Germany), Peter Mouritsen, Johnny Pedersen (both Denmark), Fernando Rivas (Spain), Verena Fastenbauer (Austria), Gregory Verpoorten (Belgium) and the ever popular Budi Santoso (Indonesia).

Players participated in two training sessions per day, coaches had a different timetable which included sessions in the classroom as well as on court. The coaches were assessed to be awarded the Learning Structure for Coaches Diploma (course one).

At the end of the week, all of the players took part in a singles competition. The boy’s singles tournament was won by Pavel Florian (Czech Rep) after beating Ben Beckman (England) in the final, the girl’s final was won by Tenzin Pelling (Switzerland) who defeated Michaela Mathis (Austria).

However it wasn’t just badminton that was played at the Summer School. Most participants took part in a Uni-hock tournament, a coaches vs players football match (won by the coaches) and the non-badminton highlight of the week - a dragon boat race on the river Ruhr. This was not won by Budi’s boat, but by a boat containing 20 players!

A big thank you must go to the local organisers, who will also be the host organisers of the special edition 2006 EBU Summer School. Next year the Summer School will celebrate its 25th anniversary and will once again be held in Germany during the month of July.