Armenia for the first time will have a representative in the badminton women’s singles event at the European Games. Lilith Poghosyan has placed 226th in the world standings and is among the 32 badminton participants of the singles event. On April 3 the NOC of Armenia officially received Poghosyan’s invitation of participation.

Lilith has passed long way till achieving her goal. Linguist-journalist by profession Lilith trains in Denmark, maintains a blog where she tells about sporting lifestyle, delivers her emotions to the reader and shows the backstage life of sports.
Lilith’s sports way was probably predetermined from the beginning. Her father, Hrachya Poghosyan, is the executive director of the Badminton Federation and the head coach of the team:

“I started to train as a child as I was born in a sports family. Gradually badminton became very familiar. There was a time it was a hobby, then I understood that I could do more and made it a profession. Now my all goals are related with the sport. Gradually I will try to achieve greater heights and rise to the level of the world best players. I like to work on myself both in and out of sports and badminton is a sport where you always have something to work on and accomplish your blows.”
Till qualifying for the European Games Lilith has gone a tough path but never lost her motivation in difficult minutes and moved on.

“I continually reminded myself that I had worked rather hard to reach this level, therefore I wouldn’t give up and would struggle till the last moment learning from my losses and failures. And besides, I have my relatives both in Denmark and Armenia who motivate me and make me become better.”

She gained the important qualifying points for the European Games in Iran during a tournament: before it Lilith had failed in other qualifying tournaments:

“The qualifying round started on April 1, 2018. During a year I participated in 15 tournaments. The rivalry in the last 3 month was very tough because everybody strived to be included in the list and any win was important. In January I performed badly in Sweden and Iceland, and the only hope was the international tournament in Iran which had rather strong participants. If I won in only one round I would move ahead of 5 players placing ahead of me and would finally be included in the list of participants. And it happened.”

For Lilith the participation in the European Games is a great responsibility but not tension.

“Now when I have already won the qualification, I feel almost no tension. The responsibility is a little frightening as I know how the Armenian audience and sports society reacts. I know how important the reputation of the country is for Armenia. But I have gained this qualification due to my diligence and first of all I am going to play for myself. I still have much time till the Games and I am sure after working hard and completely devoting to my trainings there will be no tension left.”
Lilith Poghosyan who can’t imagine life without badminton thought of engaging in tennis in childhood.

“I like playing tennis much and as a child I dreamed of playing tennis instead of badminton. But with time I loved badminton more because there are more movements and the game is more interesting.”

A tough competition is expected in Minsk:

“All the players are tough opponents and it will be difficult to win in any game. 2016 Olympic Games, three-time world and four-time European champion Carolina Marin will be a tough opponent for everybody. There are players among the participants from whom I have acquired many technical skills and who serves as an example for me like Danish Mia Blichfeldt and Line Kjersfeldt. It will be wonderful to play with them.”

Lilith, like everybody, wanted to “send everything to hell” at some point, to quit badminton and engage in other thing:

“During a year there are 2 or 3 times when you want to quit everything. But when I imagine myself in another sphere I realize that it is not what I want. Now I try to change my attitude and find new remedies to overcome such difficult moments. Reading many books helps to distract oneself from everyday sports fuss. There are days when I hate the morning alarm clock set for 6:20 and the successive 7:30 trainings. But having little goals and achieving them motivates me not to give up and continue struggling against repetitive and boring habits.”