Lincolnshire2012

[divingbrit]

English players narrowly missed out on a clean sweep of the medals in the Under 17 Six Nations individual tournament held at the National Badminton Centre over the Easter weekend.

The first finals of the day were the boys' and girls' singles. In the boys’ singles second seed Sam Dobson took on the number one seed from France, Lucas Corvee and emerged triumphant in a very close match 21-14, 18-21, 21-18. This avenged Dobson’s loss to Corvee in the team event and started him off on a winning note for his first final of three for the day. At the same time Emily Westwood comfortably beat Anika Dorr of Germany 21-16, 21-16 in the girls’ singles.

Dobson and Westwood then teamed up in the mixed doubles for an all English affair. Their opponents, Ryan McCarthy and Sophie Sankey, had played well to beat compatriots Aaron Cheng and Holly Smith in the mixed doubles semi final. Sankey and McCarthy, who had made his debut in an England shirt in the team event, put up a fighting display but went down to Dobson and Westwood 21-14, 17-21, 21-13 in the final.


The girls’ doubles was another all English affair, with Westwood aiming for her third gold of the day with partner Lauren Bromley. They took on Sophie Brown and Holly Smith, who had earlier played well to knock out the number one seeds from the Netherlands, Linda Chen and Myke Halkema. Brown and Smith proved to be too strong for Westwood and Brown, taking the girls’ doubles title 21-17, 21-15.

The boys’ doubles was the one title that eluded English players. The final saw Steven Cappleman and Sam Dobson, seeded 3/4, take on Swedish pair Filip Muhren and Fredrik Sologub, the second seeds. The Swedish Team had finished fifth in the team event and were determined not to go away empty handed, and in the end Muhren and Sologub proved too strong for Cappleman and Dobson, winning 21-19, 15-21, 21-15.