The current national coach Oliver Pongratz has stepped down from his role in mutual agreement with the Austrian Badminton Association. He will soon start a new job as the national coach of Sweden.
Today, it was announced on the Austrian Badminton Association website and social media that Kent Madsen will be filling as head coach of the Austrian national team. The 60-year-old Dane was last active as the national coach of the Dutch national team.
Due to an already existing engagement with a Danish club for the coming season, he will initially be in Austria for about one week per month (mainly at ÖBV-BLZ Südstadt). From May 2021, it is planned that Madsen will move to Austria. He has already been in Austria for the past few weeks, to gain a good picture of the training at the performance centre in the Südstadt and visited all other sites to get to know those responsible within the local structures.
Together with the Austrian Badminton Federation Vice President, Jürgen Koch, and the competitive sports committee, he is working intensively on the new structure, which was announced at the national conference, and which is to be presented at the beginning of autumn.
Next target
As a nation, Austria’s next big focus will be 2021 European Mixed Team Championships qualification, which will take play in December this year. Austria is in Group 3, with the Netherlands, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, so will be in for a tough fight to qualify for the finals next year in Vantaa, Finland.
To give a flavour of the top Austrian players Madsen will be working with, the 2020 Austrian national champions were:
Men's singles: Wolfgang Gnedt
Women's singles: Katrin Neudolt
Men's doubles: Philip Birker/Dominik Stipsits
Women's doubles: Serena Au Young/Katharina Hochmeir
Mixed doubles: Philip Birker/Katharina Hochmeir