Three Bronze at Euro Para-Badminton Championships

Scottish para badminton players group photo of Alan Oliver, Colin Leslie, Niall Jarvie, David Purdie, Bobby Laing, Deidre Nagel, Fiona Christie outside the venue

Colin Leslie (Dalkeith), Fiona Christie (South Queensferry) and Bobby Laing (Livingston) brought home bronze medals from the European Para-Badminton Championships in the Dutch town of Beek.

Leslie’s winning run in the SL3 men’s singles came to an end in the semi-finals but he still claimed bronze.

The 3/4 seed defeated Belgium’s 5/6 seed Bob Biesmans 12-21 21-19 21-18 to reach the last four but missed out on a place in the final after falling to Germany’s Pascal Wolter 21-12 21-8.

Team-mate Alan Oliver, the other 3/4 seed, had his medal hopes dashed when he went down 21-17 13-21 22-20 against France’s Mathieu Giles Thomas in the quarters.

Oliver also reached the last eight of the SL3-SL4 doubles before he and England’s Antony Forster went down 21-8 21-12 against Germany’s Marcel Adam and Spain’s Simon Cruz Mondejar.

Oliver and Leslie also reached the knockout stages of the SL3-SU5 mixed doubles before each went down in three close games with their respective Danish partners Julie Thrane and Astrid Lihav Riis.

Christie also struck bronze in the women’s singles WH2 category thanks to a fine win over third seed Liliia Prokofeva of Russia in the quarter-finals. She booked her semi-final place with a 23-21 19-21 21-16 victory only to fall in the semi-finals to Turkey’s second seed Narin Uluc 21-13 21-9.

Laing and English partner Isaak Dalglish also picked up a bronze in the SS6 men’s doubles. They reached the semi-finals but went down to top seeds Krysten Coombs and Jack Shephard 21-9 21-18. The Anglo-Scottish pair had reached the knockout stage with two group wins out of three before falling to the England duo. Shephard had also beaten Laing in the group stage of the singles.

Scotland squad: Alan Oliver, Colin Leslie, Niall Jarvie, David Purdie, Bobby Laing, Deidre Nagel, Fiona Christie.

For all the final results go to www.tournamentsoftware.com