U11 National Champions are crowned
The first Scottish National Champions of the new season were crowned today at Scotstoun’s National Badminton Academy.
Young shuttlers from all over Scotland descended on Glasgow to compete for glory at the youngest age group national championships, including players from as far afield as Kilmarnock, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Elgin.
Alfie Martin became the first boy to win the singles title two years in a row, no mean feat in an event which has previously been won by players of the calibre of Adam Hall, Alex Dunn and Christopher and Matthew Grimley.
Martin won all three group games before beating Findlay Welsh and Lakshya Sharma on his way to the final where he met Finn McQuade, beating the second seed 21-15.
McQuade had faced a tough route to the final. He also won all three group matches to top his group, including a 25-23 battle against Arnav Saraswat, before facing both joint third seeds – Max McCabe and Ruari Davies – in the quarter and semi finals respectively.
Martin won his second title of the day when he partnered Davies to success in the boys’ doubles.
The pair beat Saraswat and Sharma 21-17 in the final, getting revenge for suffering a shock 21-19 loss to them in the group stages.
The final of the girls’ singles was a closely fought affair between Qing Yang Xiao and Tushara Senthilrajaram, with top seed Xiao winning 23-21 to take the title.
Both players won all their group games to reach the A knockout draw before overcoming Hannah Buxel (Xiao) and Ingrid Wang (Senthilrajaram) respectively.
The same four players were involved in the final of the girls’ doubles.
Buxel and Senthilrajaram were the top seeds going into the event but Xiao and Wang upset the seedings, winning the final 21-15, meaning Xiao won her second title of the day and retained the girls’ doubles crown she first won last year.
In addition to the National titles, players finishing lower down in their groups went forward into the B knockout draws.
Adam Li won the boys’ singles and Shreya Vargheese won the girls’ singles while Vargheese and Thenoo Annamalai won the girls’ doubles and Li and Logan Sinclair won the final of the boys’ doubles.
Finally, the Russell Hogg trophy was presented to the player who had shown fair play and sportsmanship, together with the most meritorious performance at the Championships. This year the award went to Lucia Swail from Hamilton, and the presentation was made by Julie and Tulisa Hogg.
Full results are at www.tournamentsoftware.com