Aktuell

• 19.05.2026

Outstanding success for the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) at the German University Championships in badminton: the team won four of the six gold medals and made impressive use of its home advantage. By winning the team competition, UDE also qualified for the European Universities Badminton Championships 2027 in Strasbourg.

Over the extended Ascension Day weekend, UDE University Sports hosted two German University Championships at the sports campus on Gladbecker Straße in Essen: badminton and roundnet.

More than 200 players from across Germany competed in the badminton tournament. Numerous close and high-level matches created an exciting atmosphere in the arena – especially as UDE made the most of competing on home ground.

UDE entered the Final Four as favorites after already knocking co-favorites Cologne out of the tournament in the preliminary round. Following comfortable 4–1 victories over Karlsruhe and Dresden, Karl Sufryd, Marius Heinrich, Paul Sufryd, Safia Binder, Florentine Schöffski and Xenia Kölmel once again demonstrated their class. In the final against Bonn, the UDE team secured another clear 4–1 win and claimed the gold medal. With the title, the team also qualified for the European Universities Badminton Championships 2027 in Strasbourg.

Xenia Kölmel Defends Her Title
Xenia Kölmel (UDE) also dominated the women’s singles competition all the way to the final. There, she defeated Louisa Marburger (Mainz) convincingly with scores of 21–11 and 21–7, successfully defending her 2025 title.

The German university champions in the men’s doubles also come from UDE: Karl and Paul Sufryd fought their way to the final and faced strong opponents from Bonn in an intense match. Especially in the first set, they kept their nerve and eventually won 25–23 and 21–15.

Gold medal number four for UDE came in the mixed doubles competition, where Paul Sufryd and Xenia Kölmel delivered consistently strong performances throughout the tournament. In the final, they defeated another duo from Bonn 21–18 and 21–10.

Favorites Prevail in Roundnet
The German University Championships in roundnet also showcased top-level university sports. A total of 106 players competed in the tournament. In the women’s division (14 teams), the favorites from Tübingen won the title without dropping a single set. In the men’s competition (28 teams), the favored team from Heidelberg came out on top.

UDE’s team of Pascal Schott and Hennig Franzel achieved a strong sixth place, while the second UDE team consisting of Tobias Ader and Philipp Castro was eliminated earlier in the competition. In the mixed division, Pascal Schott and Sümeyye Erbay finished 11th out of 30 teams.

Picture:
The new German university champions (from left): Karl Sufryd, Safia Binder, Marius Heinrich, Florentine Schöffski, Paul Sufryd and Xenia Kölmel.