The Spanish badminton player Carolina Marín became European champion in the German city of Saarbrücken for the seventh time in her career after defeating the Scottish Kirsty Gilmour in the title match by 21-11 and 21-18.
This was the fourth time that the two met in the final for the top continental title after La Roche-sur-Yon 2016, Kolding 2017 and Madrid 2022, the last time in which the Huelva native won the trophy. Marín won in all of them, who had also conquered the winding against other different rivals in Kazán 2014, Huelva 2018 and kyiv 2021.
The Spanish woman started with one more march, solid with her service and even more so with the rest to force Gilmour to adjust the impacts a lot. In fact, only once in the entire first set did he concede two serves in a row from his rival, when she went up 15-11. There were no more concessions on his part, since not only did he not manage the advantage he had, but, with a run of 6-0, he ended up winning 21-11.
The second round began more balanced, without the Huelva native being able to leave the benches with an advantage of more than three points (11-8).
He moved within those margins until his opponent approached first after one of the best exchanges of the match (14-13) and took the lead later (17-18). There Carolina again became aggressive, which led to Gilmour leaving three shuttlecocks in a row on the net before giving up the first championship point against.
In this way, Carolina not only climbs to the top of the podium again in this event, but with her mind set on the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, she wins her third consecutive tournament after also winning the All England in Birmingham and the Open in Switzerland in Basel.
In addition, he expands a record that, along with his seven European titles, also includes an Olympic gold in Rio 2016, four world championships, one gold in the European Games and numerous international tournaments; all this despite suffering two serious injuries.