November Junior Round-up
A busy November saw Badminton England’s brightest young stars thrive on both international and domestic shores.
From a strong showing at the World Junior Mixed Team Championships, to doubles victory at the Lithuanian Junior Open, it was an action-packed month.
Here is a round-up of November.
BWF World Junior Mixed Team Championships
England narrowly missed out on a place in the knockout stages of 2024 European Junior Team Championships following a 3-2 defeat to the Netherlands.
The team ended the tournament in Ibiza with two wins in Group 6 but the opening loss was enough to deny them top spot and with it a place in the last eight.
James Song was a standout performer as he held a perfect record in the men’s singles, winning his matches against the Netherlands, Spain and Austria.
Read more here
International Opens
Benjamin Horseman and Jia Bin Lee continued their recent fine form to propel them to men’s doubles victory at the Lithuanian Junior Open.
The U19 pairing reached the last 16 of the world event in October and soared to the top of the podium a month later, beating Estonia’s Rasmus Roogsoo and Rasmus Talts 22-20 22-24 21-11.
Horsman and Lee had stormed through the earlier rounds of competition in Lithuania, not dropping a game until they reached the final and holding on to clinch the title in a thrilling toe-to-toe battle.
Simon Laukaitis represented Badminton England in the men’s singles, falling to Poland’s Mikolaj Morawski 21-8 21-17.
Later in the month, Anish Nair narrowly missed out at the place in the men’s singles semi-finals at the Slovak Junior Open.
Nair bounced back in a tough second match against Slovakia’s Alex Petrovic, overcoming his opponent 21-19 15-21 12-8 before beating Andrej Suchy 21-12 21-13.
But Ukraine’s Fedir Tiurin’s ultimately downed the Englishman 21-17 21-14.
U13 Babolat Cup
Away from the junior international circuit, Badminton England’s new U13 Babolat Cup reached it’s final chapter in November.
Berkshire’s Rooney Leung and Abby Zyi En Gan took gold in their respective male and female U13 events at the Sandwell Aquatics Centre, winning all of their group and knockout matches in emphatic style.
Leung, who started playing badminton when he was five years old, beat Nitai Wijetunge 21-17 21-11 in the final while Gan saw a tough start to her final but eventually overcame Alice Demina 22-20 21-10 to take the title.
Both aspiring athletes were thrilled to be part of the finals day, which saw 29 youngsters from all across the country go head-to-head for the overall title after winning their respective county competitions.
Aside from the busy day of competition, the young athletes recieved a surprise visit from Badminton England international star Chloe Birch.
