Title trebles for Apiliga and Stalker at the Under 15/19 National Junior Championships
Joshua Apiliga and Brooke Stalker both claimed a hat-trick of titles at today’s U15/19 National Junior Badminton Championships at Ravenscraig Regional Sports Facility in Motherwell.
Stalker successfully defended last year’s title treble of under 15 girls’ singles, doubles and mixed while in the under 19 events Apiliga upgraded the two silver medals he won in 2018, replacing them with three gold medals today.
He won the singles thanks to a 21-11 21-15 win over second seed Callum Smith but Apiliga had to work hard to even get to the final.
Facing Danny Robson in the last four, he lost the first set and lived dangerously in a tight second before completing the turnaround to win 18-21 21-18 21-9.
In the doubles Apiliga and Smith teamed up to take the title, winning 21-8 21-15 over Robson and Michael McGuire and he rounded off a successful day with Rachel Sugden in the last match of the day, beating Lewis Hart and Jodie Black 21-10 21-13 to win the mixed.
Speaking after his mixed doubles final Apiliga said: “Before today I didn’t really think too much about it [the opportunity to win the treble] but I knew I had a chance and I’m happy I managed to do it.
“In the semis of the singles there was a point where I thought I wasn’t going to do it. Danny played amazing but I managed to just get through that second set and in the third set I started feeling more confident.”
Sugden also won the girls’ singles title with victory over Eilidh McCallister but she missed out on a treble of her own when Rachel Andrew and Rachel Cameron won the girls’ doubles, upsetting the seeding to beat Sugden and Alice Campbell 21-19 21-18.
In the under 15 events Stalker’s first title of the day came with a 21-14 21-12 win over Katrina Chan in the final of the girls’ singles.
She followed that up with another win over Chan and Ishbel McCallister in the final of the girls’ doubles, partnering Vibha Raman to victory courtesy of a 21-15 21-11 score-line.
And Stalker completed her hat-trick by winning the mixed doubles with Anthony McGuire, the pair defending their title by winning 21-12 21-18 over Raman and Noah Sarvesvaran.
Stalker said: “I thought I had a good chance to win doubles and mixed but I didn’t expect to win the singles.
“Vibha [her opponent in the semi-final] and Katrina have been beating me over the last few months, so it’s really good to be able to beat them today.”
In the boys’ events Matthew Waring claimed a brace of titles. He justified his billing as top seed by taking the boys’ singles with a 21-11 21-18 final victory over Lewis Coghill before pairing up with Finlay Jack to beat top seeds Evan Kenny and Josh Taylor 21-19 21-13 in the doubles.
Full results at www.tournamentsoftware.com
For further information contact Peter Dean, Badminton Scotland’s Head of Events, on 0141 445 1218 or email peter@badmintonscotland.org.uk