A team of 9 plus coach Kaity Hall headed out to Dublin for the FZ Forza Irish Para-Badminton International held at the National Sports Arena Blanchardstown.
There were representatives in 4 out of the 6 classes with Colin Leslie and Alan Oliver SL3, David Purdie and Mary Wilson SL4, Fiona Christie WH2 and in SS6 Bobby Laing, Deirdre Nagle, Andrew Davis and making his international debut Jack Purvis.
Bobby Laing proved our most successful athlete with a Gold Medal in the mixed doubles SS6 event partnering England’s Rebecca Bedford. After a shaky start in the group stages the new pair overcame 2nd seeds Miles Krajewski and Kathrine Valli from the USA in a convincing 21-5, 21-4 win to secure a place in the semi finals v top seeds Niall McVeigh of Ireland and Carmen Flores of Peru. In this thrilling 3 setter Bobby and Rebecca came out on top 21-11, 16-21, 23-21 to set up a final clash v unseeded Isaak Dalglish of England and Oliwia Szmigiel of Poland. In the end the Scots/ English duo came out as victors in a convincing 21-13, 21-15 finish, securing the pair, and Bobby’s, first international Gold Medal.
Our other medals came in the form of 2 bronze medals in the women’s WH1/WH2 doubles and SL3-SU5 women’s doubles. Playing with Canadian Yuko Chokyu, Fiona Christie overcame Russia’s Liusia Ignatenko and Irina Kuzmenko 21-13, 21-17 to secure their bronze medal. Playing with Frances Veronique Braud, Mary Wilson defeated Russia’s Ekaterina Oginskaya and Vita Vimba 21-13, 21-11 and Australia’s Caitlin Dransfeld and Celine Vinot 21-9, 21-12 to come away with the bronze medals.
Other members of the squad were very close in reaching the knock out stages of their respective events. Andrew Davies was edged out in the last 16 of the SS6 men’s singles 21-8, 21-7 by England’s Isaak Dalglish, as was Bobby Laing in an extremely close battle with England’s Andrew Martin 26-24, 21-16. In the Men’s SL3 singles Colin Leslie reached the quarter final stages before being put out by France’s Matthieu Thomas 21-4, 21-4. In the men’s doubles SL3-SL4 Alan Oliver and Sweeden’s Rickard Nilsson were defeated in the quarter finals by Indonesians Dwiyoko Dwiyoko and Fredy Setiawan 21-6, 21-12 to end their progression. Finally, in the WH1/WH2 Mixed doubles Fiona Christie partnering Finland Timo Villanen defeated first seeds in the group stages before losing out in the quarter finals to Israel’ s Amir Levi and Nina Gorodetzky 21-16 21-17.
We would like to thank all at Badminton Ireland, BWF, officials and volunteers for an excellently ran tournament once again.
For all tournament results please visit https://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/tournament.aspx?id=9163029C-E28E-4F54-ABF5-32C62028E700
To watch the matches please visit https://www.youtube.com/user/BadmintonIrelandTV