Two medals for Laing at Irish Para-Badminton Championships

Bobby Laing returned from Dublin with one silver and one bronze medal, won in the Short Stature events at the Irish Para-Badminton Championships.

Partnering England’s Rebecca Bedford Laing won group A of the SS6 mixed doubles in convincing fashion to qualify for the knock out stage.

They came up against second seeds Vitor Goncalves Tavares (Brazil) and Oliwia Szmigiel (Poland) in the semi-finals, winning 21-18 21-16 to reach the final where they faced India’s Nagar Krishna and America’s Katherine Valli.

But they couldn’t take the final step up on the podium, losing a close match 21-19 21-18 to win the silver medal.

In the men’s doubles Laing played with Fabien Morat of France.

Two good wins saw them finish second in Group B, with their only loss coming against second seeds Krishna and Raja Magotra.

That was enough to qualify for the knock-out stages and guarantee a bronze medal, but a clash with top seeds Chu Man Kai and Wong Chun Yim of Hong Kong in the semi-finals ended their campaign.

Colin Leslie and Niall Jarvie lost out in the group stages of the SL3 men’s singles, as did Jamie Munro in the SL4 men’s singles and Mary Wilson in the SL4 women’s singles.

But Richard Lean finished second in Group B to reach the last-sixteen of the SL4 men’s singles, although that was as far as he could progress, going out at the hands of Indonesia’s Fredy Setiawan.

Colin Leslie and England’s Anthony Forster reached the quarter-finals in the SL3-SL4 men’s doubles, as did Mary Wilson and Canadian Olivia Meier in the SL3-SU5 women’s doubles.

Full results can be found at www.tournamentsoftware.com

The National Disability Badminton Squad is looking for sparrers to help our Paralympic hopefuls in their training. Men and women of all ages who play at club or county level would be welcome. If interested, contact Sarah Bok on sarahbokpt@hotmail.co.uk