Irish A & D Grade Nationals!

The Irish A, D & G Grade Nationals took place on 24th-25th February with the A & D Grades being held at Baldoyle Badminton Centre and the G Grade held at Marino Institute of Education.

The A Grade event was played to finished with the D &G grades playing to the Final’s in all disciplines, with the Finals being played on the Graded Finals Day, 11th May at NIA, Dublin.

A Grade Nationals

Ballyclare’s Laura Comer had a great Women's Singles event, taking home the title with a hard fought win in the Final 21-19, 16-21, 21-14 against the top seed Ciara Dwyer.

Paige & Chloe Woods came through a tough Semi Final in 3 sets in the Women’s Doubles ,to set up a meeting with the Top seeds, Ruth Kilkenny & Ciara Dwyer in the Final. The young Alpha BC pair played a great final to win 21-13, 21-14 and defend the Women’s Double title.

Paige also had a good run in the Women’s Singles reaching the Semi final but lost out in 2 sets to Ciara Dwyer, 22-20, 21-10.

Great to see the young players performing well & steeping up into Senior Badminton!

Full Results- here

D Grade Nationals

The D Grade was a great event for some young Ulster players with 3 players progressing to the Finals Day in May.

Olympia BC player Aiden Biju Joy had 3 solid wins in the early rounds of the Men’s Singles to progress to the Semi Finals, where he faced fellow Ulster Player Nok Chan Tsz (Greenbank BC). Unfortunately Nok had to retire in the Semi’s, which meant Adien progressed to the Finals day in May.

Zoe Kearon & Ceira Kennedy (Alpha BC & Raphoe BC) reached the Finals day in May winning a tight 3 set match in the Semi Finals 21-15, 12-21, 21-14 against Anais Charbonnier & Alicia Saray Torres Alcázar . In the Final they will face fellow Ulster player Amber Buchanan (Alpha BC) & partner Jennifer Murphy. Amber & Jennifer played very solid winning all their matches in 2 sets to progress to the final including a 21-12, 21-18 win in their Semi Final.

Full results- Here

Event photos can be found here

Best of luck to all the qualified players at the Graded Finals in May!