Leigh U17 Gold Star

Emerging Performance Squad player Matthew Cheung came home with a silver and 2 bronze from the Badminton England Leigh U17 Gold star event. The Gold Star event is for the Top Ranked 16 players within the UK providing some entertaining & exciting matches for the players within this age group.

Sophia Noble had a great tournament winning the Gold Star Girls singles and also took a bronze in the Mixed Doubles with Matthew. Vincent Pondtanosa also travel and was unfortunate not to qualify for the knock out stages of the boys singles but had a great run in the Boys doubles, partnering Matthew to reach the final.

Placed in Group D for the Boys singles, with the 3/4 seed, Oliver Butler, from England Matthew had a tough group but defeated the English man in 3 sets and won his other two group games to qualify for the Semi Final. In the Semi's he faced the strong top seed Nadeem Dalvi from England and after a well fought opening set Matthew lost out 21-15, 21-11. A great effort to reach the latter stages and claim a bronze medal.

Sophia Noble played great through the Girls singles event topping her group with 3 comfortable wins. In the semi final she faced Shirol from England but Sophia keep up her good level from the group stages and won 21-17, 21-10 to progress to the final. She faced to top seed of the tournament, Ashwati Nair in the final and had a great start winning the first set 21-15, the English girl upped her game in the second set and took it 21-18. Sophia really refocused in the final set and played a great level of badminton taking the set 21-8 and the Gold Star title. 

Matthew & Vincent were seeded 2 for the Boys Doubles event and progressed to the Quarter Final after topping their group. A well fought 3 set match ensued against Dalvi/Hosken from England but it the Irish pair that came through, 21-18 in the 3rd game to progress to the Semi final. The boys had a comfortable semi final game beating Evans/Howells 21-16, 21-15 to set up a final against the Top seeds Hoang/Jones from England. It proved a match to far for the boys with the top seeds taking the title 21-15, 21-17. A good run for Matthew & Vincent and a well deserved Silver medal.

Matthew & Sophia teamed up for the Mixed Doubles and had a 2 good wins in the early round to reach the semi final. There they faced the 2nd seeds Sivakumaar/Arksey from England and unfortunately they proved to strong for the Irish pair winning 21-15, 21-11, leaving Matthew 7 Sophia with a bronze medal.

Overall a great event for all 3 Irish players! For full results of the event click here