Five sportswomen from Kharkiv Polytechnic University won bronze medals at the European Team Badminton Championships in Turkey for the first time in Ukraine’s history. The winners of the continental championship and authors of this historic achievement were students of the Department of Physical Education of NTU «KhPI»: Sofia Lavrova, Anastasia Alimova, Raiya Almalalha, Polina Bugrova, and Maria Stoliarenko. Another Kharkiv native, Yevgeniya Kantemir, also won bronze as part of the national team. This success allowed the Ukrainian team, the youngest in the championship, to qualify for the most prestigious world team tournament, the Uber Cup, which will take place in April 2026 in Denmark.
Students of the Department of Physical Education of the Educational and Scientific Institute of Social and Humanitarian Technologies of the National Technical University «Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute” Sofia Lavrova, Anastasia Alimova, Raiya Almalalha, Polina Bugrova, and Maria Stoliarenko won bronze medals at the European Team Badminton Championships. Another Kharkiv native, Yevgeniya Kantemir, was also awarded a bronze medal. It should be noted that our team was the youngest among the participants in Istanbul. In the group stage, the Ukrainian women defeated the teams of Estonia and Germany with the same score of 4:1, and in the semifinals lost to the Danish team 0:3. This historic achievement of the Ukrainian women’s team has written a new page in the history of domestic badminton!
Congratulations to our sportswomen and their coaches: Honored Coach of Ukraine, lecturer at the Department of Physical Education at NTU «KhPI» Mykhailo Sterin, as well as graduates of Kharkiv Polytechnic Anna Kryuchkova and Natalia Golovkina on their awards, and we wish them new brilliant victories!
Note:
The European Team Badminton Championships took place on February 11-15, 2026, in Istanbul, Turkey.