Round Up: 2022 European Junior Championships
Our U19 Scotland Team were in Serbia last week for the European Junior Championships in Belgrade. We competed both in the Team and individual event with ten players making up the squad.
In the team event Scotland competed against Ireland, Turkey and France in our group, where we had some very close matches, particularly narrowly missing out to ireland 3-2 and losing to Turkey 4-1. We also lost to a very strong French side 5-0 who went on to reach the final of the team event.
In the individual event our stand out performance came from Abbie Brooks, who reached the last 32 of the Women’s singles. Abbie played against Nikol Carulla who was seeded 14th and narrowly lost out 21-18, 21-12, 21-19.
We also had Lewis Coghill and Katrina Chan reaching the last 32 of the mixed doubles, losing out to the very strong 3rd seeded French pair of Mael Cattoen and Camille Pognante. Katrina Chan also reached the last 32 of the women’s doubles with partner Ishbel McCallister, losing to eventual silver medalists from England Lisa Curtin and Estelle Van Leeuwen.
Abbie Brooks
We caught up with Abbie Brooks after the event to hear her reflections:
“I really enjoyed the experience because it gave me the opportunity to play new experienced players that have an amazing quality of shot and consistency. The team event was definitely a favourite, the atmosphere was buzzing and there was just so much support from the team.”
Anne Robertson
Our team coach Anne Robertson also reflected on the experience:
“I often follow the junior events online or watch on BadmintonEurope tv but when you actually sit and watch the games in person you realise how good the level of play is and the depth there now is in Europe.
Learning definitely took place with the group, you could see players trying to implement the advice they had been given during the breaks and we were then able to work on specific areas with the players on the practice courts before their next matches.
I hope the players will continue to work on these areas now they are back in their normal training environments.”
Having now competed in these championships, our some of our players will now look to start competing in the senior circuit, whilst others now have two more years of preparation to compete in the next U19 European Junior Championships.
You can view full results from the tournament on Tournament Software:
Individual Event – https://bit.ly/3cBiHcC
Team Event – https://bit.ly/3CP4SCm