ALEX Dunn and Eleanor O’Donnell have given themselves a significant boost as they prepare to switch their full focus to senior international badminton by claiming silver medals at the European Junior Championships in Denmark.
The Scottish teenagers went into the competition unseeded but saw off Slovakian fourth seeds Miha Ivancic and Petra Polanc in the last 16 to give themselves a chance of getting into medal contention and went on to guarantee themselves a medal with a straight-sets quarter-final defeat of England’s Callum Hemming and Fee Teng Lieuw.
They then produced an even bigger upset in the semi-final with a great display of character when they recovered from losing a tight opener to Poles Pawel Smilowski and Magdalena Swierczynska, the top seeds, to come through 19-21 21-14 22-20.
Having had to play an extra match because their opponents in the final, like all of the top-four seeds, had been given an opening round bye, their tough run came to an end at the hands of Russia’s Rodion Alimov and Alina Davletova. Despite the defeat to the seconds seeds, the Scots duo’s coach Robert Blair, a World Championship silver medallist and Commonwealth Games bronze medallist in his own playing days, expressed satisfaction with the way they performed.
“It’s obviously a disappointing result, but should not put a damper on what has been a wonderful week for Alex and Eleanor,” he said.
“They have performed very well and risen to all the challenges that faced them. Today they needed to be very disciplined as the Russians were powerful and good on the net.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here