It was perhaps the most frustrating moment of her athletic life. Exactly one year ago, Mark Lamsfuss and Marvin Seidel reached the doubles final at the European Badminton Championships, aiming for the greatest joint success.
But a positive corona test robbed them of all chances of EM gold. From Monday (April 25th, 2022), Germany’s best doubles team will make another attempt to win the longed-for gold medal at the European Championships in Madrid.
Corona infection abruptly destroyed the dreams
The call from the sports director came early in the morning. It is the morning of the finals at the European Championships in Kyiv in early May 2021. Not good news for Mark Lamsfuss and Marvin Seidel.
A positive corona test by Lamsfuss ruins all hopes. Quarantine instead of EM final. Hotel room instead of center court.
“We had a great run all week. Even though I had been feeling a little sick and suffering from a fever the previous days, I had never been so sure of winning a final“, says Lamsfuss about how he experienced the fateful morning. “There was a feeling as if someone had stolen the European Championship title.“
First gold opportunity since 1974
The fact that it would have been the first for a German men’s duo since 1974 best describes what significance this gold medal would have had for the German Badminton Association. Back then, Willi Braun and Roland Maywald triumphed in the European Championship final.
All the more devastating to have to deal with this situation all alone in the hotel room. 14 long days. Locked in.
Doubles colleague Marvin Seidel and mixed partner Isabel Lohau, with whom Lamsfuss won the bronze medal at the European Championships, were a little luckier. As direct contacts, they were allowed to leave Ukraine after just five days.
Quarantine: “A feeling like in jail”
Mark Lamsfuss stayed behind. “It felt like being in jail. All were long gone. Only I was there.”
The way he was presented with the silver medal did not improve his feelings either. Not on the podium in the competition hall, but by knocking on the hotel room door. There she was lying on the floor in the hallway. Without further message, without any greeting.
In the meantime, the frustration of spring 2021 has long since given way to the desire to catch up on what was missed this week at the European Championships in Madrid. In the men’s doubles, Lamsfuss and Seidel are in second place.
Desire for the title instead of frustration at Lamsfuss/Seidel
“We’ve improved so much over the past year and a half that we believe that a European title shouldn’t just be the greatest success“, Marvin Seidel sums up the duo’s self-confidence. They have been on the court together since the end of 2015 and have since established themselves as the best German men’s doubles team.
“We’re almost like an old married couple, sometimes rattling each other because we can both be very stubborn,” Seidel characterizes their sporting relationship, which has currently taken the duo to 17th place in the world rankings.
Due to the corona virus, it is a little distorted because teams are still taken into account that no longer play at all. If you take them out of the ranking, Lamsfuss and Seidel would even be in twelfth place.
Celebrity Coach Support
On the weekend before the start of the European Championship, they won the German championship together with their Bundesliga club 1. BC Wipperfeld for the first time. The form is right, also thanks to prominent help from the coaches.
Thanks to the support of a private sponsor, Lamsfuss and Seidel have been working together with the Dane Mads Conrad-Petersen for a year. The 34-year-old doubles specialist was himself an absolutely exceptional player. European champion, fourth in the world rankings.