Medals for Matthew & Laura At U15 Home Nations Quad!

Matthew Cheung & Laura Comer had a great tournament at the Home Nations U15 Quad! Matthew partnered Vincent Pontanosa  to win a Silver medal in the Boys Doubles and Matthew Reached the Semi final of the Boys Singles to get a Bronze. Laura Comer partnered Julia O'Reilly to take a Bronze Medal in the Girls Doubles.

Matthew Cheung Partnered Vincent Pontanosa in the Boys Doubles and reached the final after coming through a great match against England's Sam Jones & Oliver Butler in the Semi Finals 23-21 & 22-20 to reach the final against another English pair of Joe Scott & Dan McMillan. The Irish Pair were on top at the start of the match leading 11-9 at the interval but the English pair had a run of 5 points in a row to lead 14-11 and pushed further on leading 19-15, however Matthew & Vincent put in a great effort and levelled at 19-19 and pushed on to take the set 21-19. The second set seen the English pair come back strong cutting out shots very well in the net Area and took the second set 21-19. This momentum for the English pair pushed them on in the 3rd set leading 19-14 but again Matthew & Vincent came back strong and levelled at 18-18 but the English pair played 3 excellent points winning the 3rd set 21-18 and taking the win. A great silver Medal for Matthew & Vincent with some great performances throughout the competition in both the team event and Individual.  

After a securing a Silver Medal in the Team event the players took to court against the Scottish, Welsh and English Players for the individual competition. Matthew had a comfortable progression in the Boys singles to the Semi Final were he was up against the English No.1 Singles player, Blake Hoang. The match was of excellent quality throughout, with great shot making and long rallies. The first set was extremely close with Blake taking a lead in the latter stages of 17-13, however Matthew came back strong and levelled it at 20-20. It was point for point up to 26-26 but Blake took the next 2 points and the first set 28-26. The second set Matthew took a lead into the mid game interval but Blake came back strong levelling at 14 all. He took this momentum to the end of the match taking the second set 21-16 and the Singles Title. A great Bronze Medal for Matthew who is only 13 Years Old and will take this experience into next years competition.

Laura Comer & Julia O'Reilly claimed a bronze medal in the Women's doubles after beating the Scottish pair of Sophie Ford & Mary Kong in the Quarter Finals in a great doubles match 23-21 & 21-19 and secured at least a Bronze Medal. In the Semi Finals the pair were up against the English No.1's Tashvi Parab & Leona Lee. It was a tough match for the girls and showed some good glimpses of their play from the semi final match but the English Pair proved too strong winning 21-10, 21-11.

Over all it was a great event for the U15 Ireland team taking home a Silver in the team event & 1 silver and 2 Bronze in the Individual. Also great to see that Ulster had Matthew Cheung, Stuart McCollum & Laura Comer in the team and competing well at this level.

Full Team Event results -http://www.badminton.wales/events/97/u15-quadrangular

Individual Results- https://badmintonwales.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/tournament.aspx?id=9E8C7374-C272-4DBF-9101-04BC4...