FOUR of Scotland's most promising young badminton players were today named in the Scotland team to compete in the third Commonwealth Youth Games, to be held in the Indian city of Pune from October 11-18.

The quartet is Martin Campbell of Edinburgh, Angus Gilmour of Troon, and Longniddry players Craig Pollock and Paul Van Rietvelde. Diana Koleva will be the badminton team leader.

All four players are members of Scotland's Junior High Performance badminton squad and have already tasted Scottish National Age Group success.

• Campbell, 18 at the end of last month, is a former Under 13 National doubles champion, former Under 15 singles and doubles champion, Under 17 singles, doubles and mixed champion and current Under 23 mixed doubles champion
• Gilmour was 18 at the start of this month and is a former Under 17 National doubles champion with Campbell.
• Pollock, aged 16, is a former Under 13 singles champion and twice Under 13 doubles winner as well as twice Under 15 doubles champion and once Under 17 doubles champion.
• Van Rietvelde, 17 at the start of this month, is  former singles, doubles and mixed champion at Under 13 and Under 15 age groups, Under 17 doubles and mixed champion, and current Under 19 doubles and mixed champion

Based on past successes in the Commonwealth Youth Games, these four players can hope to be among the contenders for places in the senior Commonwealth Games in Delhi in 2010 and in Glasgow in 2014.

But some of the four will also have their sights trained on the Olympic Games in London 2012 - by which time they will be starting to make a big impact at senior level.

Anne Smillie, Chief Executive of BADMINTONscotland, said: "I am delighted for the four of them as they represent the future for Scottish badminton - and it is a bright future.

"However, it is a pity that our emerging female talent has not been considered good enough to earn selection and this is something our coaches will be looking at closely and be wanting to put right." 

The Scotland squad is made up of 44 athletes to compete in what will be the first Youth Games to issue invitations to all 71 Commonwealth countries. There will be 351 medals up for grabs across nine sports (athletics, badminton, boxing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, tennis, weightlifting and wrestling) with Scotland competing in all but the tennis.

Louise Martin CBE, Chair of sportscotland said: "This is a marvellous development opportunity for these young people to gain experience competing at a large global multi-sport event at an early age. It is fantastic to see the length and breadth of Scotland represented from Troon to Aberdeen to The Isle of Islay. I am sure their experience at the Youth Games will inspire many of them to go on to compete successfully in future senior Commonwealth and Olympic Games."