FZ Irish National & U15 Irish National Championships 2019

The Forza Senior Irish Nationals and U15 Irish Nationals took place at Balydoyle Badminton Centre on 2-3rd February with Raphoe's Chloe & Sam Magee winning their 11th Mixed title while 2018 Commonwealth Games player Rachael Darragh won the Ladies Doubles. Matthew Cheung was the star of the U15 Irish Nationals winning the boys singles & Mixed doubles with Partner Chloe Woods.

Forza Irish Senior Nationals

Sam & Chloe continued their dominance at the Irish National Championships winning their 11th Mixed title in 12 years. After missing lasts years event through injury the Raphoe pair had a smooth passage to the final where their faced 2nd seeds Paul Reynolds & Rachael Darragh. The first set went to plan for the World Ranked 42 pair, winning 21-14. however Paul & Rachel Really upped their game in the 2nd set and put the Magee pair under some pressure but their experienced showed in the latter stages of the set sneaking it 22-20.

Rachael Darragh teamed up with Dublin's Sara Boyle for the Women's Doubles and faced the young Ulster pair of Rachael & rebecca Woods in the Semi final. The Darragh/Boyle Pairing were very solid in the first set giving away few errors winning 21-10. The second set the Woods Twins started to play to a higher level and put Sara & Rachael under pressure but their came through 22-20. In the final their faced Orla Flynn & Viki Pesti. The Raphoe/Dublin pair were just to strong in the final winning 21-11, 21-13 taking the title.

Rachael also reached the final of the Women's Singles but lost out to an in form Kate Frost 21-15, 21-12.

Ciaran Chambers & partner Mark Brady reached the final of the Men's Doubles overcoming the 3/4 Seeds Adam McAllister & Dan Magee in semi Final. In the final they played the Connacht pairing of Jonny Dolan & David Walsh. It was a tough match for Ciaran & Mark against the Connacht pair who are now training full time at the Badminton Europe's Centre of Excellence losing out 21-11, 21-14.

Rachael Woods reached the Semi Final of the Women's Singles but lost out to Rachael Darragh in the Semi Finals while Ciaran Chambers also reached the semi final of the mixed with the young Sophia Noble losing out to Reynolds & Darragh 21-19, 21-15.

Full results can be found here

U15 Irish Nationals

Matthew Cheung came away with 2 Irish Titles at the U15 event winning the Boy's Singles & Mixed Doubles with Fellow Ulster Performance Squad player Chloe Woods. Chloe also have a good event claiming silver in the Girls doubles with her younger sister Paige.

Seeded 1 for the boys singles Matthew had a comfortable passage to the final dropping no more that 8 points in a set. He continued this form in the Singles final against Dylan Noble playing some high level badminton to win 21-10, 21-6 and claim his fist title of the day.

In the mixed event Chloe and Matthew played very solid up to the Final beating the 3/4 en route. They faced Robbie Frost & Siofra Flynn in the final but Matthew & Chloe proved to strong for the Dublin pair winning 21-6, 21-6 an the Mixed Title.

Chloe teamed up with her younger sister Paige for the Girls double's and were seeded 2 for the event. After a tough opening round match coming through 23-21 in the 3rd set they had a good semi final win over Eva Hassett & Carryduff's  Roisin McKenna. The final was an all sister affair with Chloe & Paige playing another sister partnership of Neasa & Siofra Flynn. It was the Flynn sisters who had a great start winning the first set 21-7 and continued their form into the second set winning 21-19 after a good fight back from the Woods sisters mid set.  

Matthew also reached the final of the Boys Doubles with Partner Robbie Frost against Top seeds Fleming & Kong and after winning the opening set 21-8, Matthew and Robbie looked in a strong position to take the title. However ,the Top seeds for fought back hard in the second set winning 21-17 and didn't let up in the 3rd winning 21-18, leaving Matthew & Robbie settling for 2nd lace.

Full results of the U15 Irish Nationals can be found here

Congratulations to all Winners and Medallists!