Glasgow International Youth U13 & U15 Championships

The Glasgow International Youth U13 & U15 championships were held in Scotstoun, Glasgow with Matthew Cheung winning a Medal of Each Colour in the U15 events and Ireland’s U13 Team competing with Siofra Flynn winning the Girls singles and Raw Performance Squad player Christopher Chee in action.

U15 Event

Matthew Cheung finished off an already impressive season by taking Gold in the Mixed Doubles with Dutch partner Chloe Li, silver in the Boys Doubles with Indian partner Lakshay Sharma and a Bronze in the Boys Singles.

In the mixed the Ulster/Dutch pairing had 2 comfortable wins in their opening matches against 2 English pairs, progressing to face the 5/8 Seeds from Scotland McGuire & Stalker in the Quarter finals. Matthew & Chloe were seeded 1 for the event played very well winning in 2 straight games 21-10, 21-11.  In the Semi Final their played the ¾ seeds from England, Harper/Hong and again Matthew and Chloe played exceptionally well winning 21-11, 21-14. The final put Matthew up against the player who narrowly defeated him in the Final of the U15 Quadrangular a few earlier, Oliver Butler, who was also playing with a Dutch partner Stefanie Nijsse. On paper it looked to be a tough match but Matthew & Chloe maintained an excellent level of play winning comfortably 21-11, 21-7 to take the title.

In the Boy’s Singles Matthew won all his group matches to progress to the last 32 knock out stages and after a bye he played Scotland’s Josh Taylor. Matthew came out very strong in the opening set winning 21-8 before the Scot had a change of tactics in the 2nd set making it close in the early stages. Matthew then regained control after the mid game interval and went onto win 21-16. His Quarter final opponent was the English 5/8 Seed Michael Pang. Michael had a victory over Matthew in the Milton Keynes Gold Star event earlier in the Year but Matthew tied their head-to-head, 1-1, after beating him in the U15 Quadrangular Semi Final. Similar to the previous round Matthew came out extremely fast in the opening set winning 21-7. Pang started to play betterin in the 2nd game and along with a few errors from Matthew, Pang evened the match up at 1 game all, 21-18. The 3rd set was also very close but it was Matthew who won the critical points to take the Match 21-18 in a 53 minute match! In the Semi final he played the top seed for the event Lakshay Sharma from India. The Indian player was very solid in the first game and moved the shuttle well around the court taking it 21-11. Matthew fought back in the 2nd set and played some great rallies to stay with the strong Indian player but just lost out 21-19. A good performance and a deserved Bronze Medal.

The Boy’s Doubles seen Matthew and his Singles Semi-final victor team up and were seeded 2 for the event. They won all their matches in Group 2 and progressed to the Final with a bye in the last 16 and wins against English opponents in the Quarter & Semi-finals. In the Final they played the Top seeds Butler/Hosken from England. It was a close first game with the English pair sneaking it 21-17 which gave them confidence in the 2nd Game taking it comfortably 21-10. A Silver and a good run for the Ulster/Indian pair having never played together before.

A good tournamnet for Matthew to finish of the season.

 U13 Event

The Ireland U13 team travelled to Glasgow for the Team and Individual event including Ulster’s Christopher Chee. They had a great team event finishing 4th losing out to a German team in the 3/4th playoff position.

Leinster’s Siofra Flynn had a great tournamnet winning the U13 Girls Singles beating a strong Indian girl in the Quarter Finals and comfortable win against the 5/8 seed from England in the Semi final. In the Final she faced a tough test against Scotland’s Iona Muir but Siofra played really well to win in 3 games 21-16 in the 3rd set.

Siofra teamed up with Michelle Shochan in the Girls Doubles to win a Bronze Medal after winning their group to progress to the last 8, beating an Indian/England pair to reach the Semi final. Unfortunately they came up against a strong German pair losing out 21-19, 21-12.

Christopher Chee played very well in his group Matches in the Boys singles winning his first match against Scotland but narrowly lost his 2nd match 17-21, 23-21, 19-21 to Anish Nair from England. In the Boy’s Doubles Christopher played with Darragh Murtagh and were in a tough Group with the Number 1 seeds. They had a good win in their opening group match against Scottish opponents, 21-3, 21-2 but lost their second to Chittamuru & Kemp from England in their 2nd match.

After 2 good wins in the 1st & 2nd Rounds Christopher & partner Michelle Shochan reached the Quarter Finals of the Mixed Doubles. They faced the English Top seeds of Kemp/Brierley and after losing the first set put up a great fight in the second set, but the English pair proved just too strong winning 21-16. A Good Tournamnet and experience for all the young Irish Team.

Full results of both Age groups can be found here