First win for Scotland at finals of European Team Championships
Scotland staged a remarkable comeback to win their first match at the European Mixed Team Championships, being staged in Vantaa, Finland this week.
Having lost the men’s and women’s singles ties Scotland’s finest found themselves trailing 2-0 to hosts Finland before Christopher Grimley and Adam Hall stopped the rot, winning their men’s doubles tie with Eetu Heino and Anton Kaisti 21-17 21-18.
Then on to court stepped Scotland’s heroes from December’s qualification stages.
Just as in their women’s doubles against Spain in December, Julie MacPherson and Ciara Torrance found themselves trailing after losing the first set 21-19.
But from there it was one way traffic as the Scots exerted their authority over Mathilda Lindholm and Jenny Nystrom and went on to dominate the rest of the tie, winning 21-8 21-11 to level the match 2-2.
In the deciding mixed doubles, Grimley and Eleanor O’Donnell saved two set points in the opener before taking it 22-20, but lost the second 21-19 having at one stage held a promising 14-10 lead.
They trailed for the majority of the third set but rallied at 16-13 down, winning six points in a row on their way to taking the set 21-18 and the overall match for Scotland.
On Tuesday the Scots lost out 4-1 to a strong German team but the silver lining in defeat was Joshua Apiliga’s outstanding men’s singles win over Max Weisskirchen, a player ranked more than 700 places above him in the world.
Speaking to Badminton Europe afterwards he said: “I really fancied my chances coming into this game.
“I think the hall suits my game really well. I had a good talk with Bob [Robert Blair] before the game and I knew my game suited Max quite well.”
Apiliga also paid tribute to the team spirit which is once again in overwhelming evidence in the Scotland camp.
“It’s massive. We are a really tight group, and I knew they would always have my back in the game.”
Scotland face top seeds and tournament favourites Denmark this afternoon.
Full results and draws at www.tournamentsoftware.com
You can watch live streaming of the event at http://www.badmintoneurope.tv/ and results, draws and match schedules are at www.tournamentsoftware.com
Photo Credit: Badminton Europe/Koen Mutton