Travers and Black guaranteed to medal at the European Senior Championships

Dan Travers and Christine Black are guaranteed to return from the European Senior Championships with at least one medal each in the 60+ age group.

The women’s singles unfolded according to form with the top four seeds all reaching the semi-finals and Black will now face top seed Heidi Bender of Germany for the right to play in the final.

Travers is top seed in the men’s singles and will play Austrian Tariq Farooq in the semi-finals but both Scots have guaranteed themselves at lease a bronze medal, with the losing semi-finalists all collecting gongs.

Travers and Black are second seeds in the mixed doubles and have reached the quarter-finals where they will play England’s William Hamblett and Barbara Davidson tomorrow morning.

Travers and Black have also reached the quarter-finals in the men’s and women’s doubles, partnering Rob and Marjan Ridder respectively, but Sam Campbell and Ireland’s Brian McKee were beaten by one of the joint 5/8 seeds in their second round match.

In the 40+ age group Mark MacKay just missed out on a medal in the men’s singles when he lost out to top seeded Frenchman Thomas Blondeau in the quarter-finals.

But MacKay and Croatian Marjan Vugrinec are still in contention for the men’s doubles and will play Joel Mevel and Eric Wasylyk of France tomorrow morning.

MacKay will also team up with Esther Fleurbaay in tomorrow’s 40+ mixed doubles quarter-final but Gavin Blyth and Martin Sheach went out of the 45+ men’s doubles in the second round.

At 55+ brother-sister duo Ross Gladwin and Jill Gladwin Greig scored two good wins to reach the last sixteen of the mixed doubles, but they couldn’t overcome Ireland’s eighth seeds Graham Henderson and Pamela Peard, who triumphed 21-11 21-12.

Gladwin Greig and Danish partner Mona Ahlsten lost out in the women’s doubles to Ahlsten’s compatriots Birte Bach Steenberg and Birthe Pernille Skjoet but not before they had given the joint third seeds a scare, winning the first game 23-21 before succumbing to a very creditable defeat.

Gladwin and England’s Martin Staden reached the quarter-finals of the 55+ men’s doubles thanks to a hard fought 21-23 21-14 21-12 win over Sweden’s Lennart Berglind and Sane Enqvist but will have to be on top of their game to progress any further when they face top seeds Eric Plane and Roger Taylor of England tomorrow.

Full results, draws and live scores at www.tournamentsoftware.com

Live streaming at https://www.youtube.com/user/BadmintonEuropeConf