Glasgow International Youth Championships 2019
From Friday 17th – Sunday 19th May, Glasgow will host the 7th edition of the Glasgow International Youth Championships. Dating back to 2013, the tournament has steadily increased in popularity with many top international junior badminton players coming to compete at U13 & U15 level. 2019 promises to be the best tournament yet with a 20% increase in entrants compared to 2018!
Over 200 players from 13 different countries are taking part this year. In addition to the strong local contingent of home-grown players, competitors from the rest of the home nations will be joined by entrants from Germany, Cyprus, Trinidad and Tobago, India, Poland, Republic of Ireland, Spain, Hungary and the Netherlands, making it a truly cosmopolitan affair.
The event is run by the Glasgow and North Strathclyde Group who have received considerable support from Glasgow Sport, Glasgow School of Sport, The Sports Council for Glasgow and Yonex UK to deliver the seventh edition of this popular event.
Events
The action gets underway with the team events which sees eight U13 teams battling it out at the Glasgow School of Sport on Friday and twelve U15 teams competing at the National Badminton Academy in Scotstoun. The group and knockout stages of the individual tournament (up to and including the quarter finals) will be staged on Saturday with the Semi Finals and Finals of all events to be held on Sunday.
Venues
Due to the total number of entrants to this year’s individual event, play will be spread across four different venues:
U13 Girls Singles: ARC, Glasgow Caledonian University, 70 Cowcaddens Road, Glasgow, G4 0BA
U13 Boys Singles, U13 Girls Doubles, U13 Boys Doubles, U13 Mixed Doubles: Glasgow School of Sport, Bellahouston Academy, 30 Gower Terrace, G41 5QE
U15 Girls Singles, U15 Girls Doubles: Sir Craig Reedie Centre, 12 Bogmoor Place, Glasgow, G51 4TQ
U15 Boys Singles, U15 Boys Doubles, U15 Mixed Doubles: National Badminton Academy, Scotstoun Leisure Centre, Danes Drive, Glasgow, G14 9HD
Competition
With everyone keen to win on the international stage, the competition promises to be tough and we can look forward to some high-quality badminton.
England’s Lucy Brierley is seeded first in U13 girls singles and is looking to build on her recent singles success at the Olve International tournament in Belgium. She also pairs up with Daniel Kemp to defend her mixed doubles titles at U13 level from last year. Scotland’s sole winners last years were Katrina Chan and Brooke Stalker in the U13 girls doubles, who are moving up to compete at this year’s U15 event.
In the boys singles England are well represented with nine seeds, including the top three. They’ll face tough competition from the number four seed, Poland’s Mikolaj Morawski, who also returns to defend his boys doubles title with Polish partner Tymoteusz Cybulski.
In the older age category Chloë Li from the Netherlands is the top seed in the girls singles following her success at U15 level at Olve International in Belgium. She will face stiff competition from the rest of the field, including last year’s U13 champion Grace Sachdeva and beaten finalist Brooke Stalker. Chloë will team up with Northern Ireland’s Matthew Cheung as favourites for the mixed doubles.
The boys singles sees the return of Indian Lakshay Sharma who triumphed at U13 level in the GIY Championships in 2017. Lakshay is seeded first and will be challenged for the title by, amongst others, England’s Ethan Hosken, who narrowly lost out in the final of the U15 boys singles event at Olve in April this year. Ethan will partner Oliver Butler to start as favourites for the boys doubles.
Watch the action
With so many talented players on your doorstep why not come down and take in the action in person? The National Badminton Academy at Scotstoun has plenty of seating and the Semi Final action is scheduled between 9:00am and 12:30pm on Sunday 19th May over four courts. The finals will be held on the show courts between 1:00pm and 5:00pm.
For results, scores and draws, you can find the team event here and the individual events here