April 28, 2024
Rachel Choong and Jack Shephard roared to gold for the second successive week at the Spanish Para Badminton International in Toledo.
Just as in Vitoria, the SH6 mixed doubles pair strolled to victory while Choong also reached the women’s singles semi-finals.
The red-hot first seeds dropped just 15 points across their two group-stage victories over Maxime Greboval and Anastasiia Zavalii and Hector Jesus Salva Tunque and Rubi Milagros Fernandez Vargas.
Their latest run to glory came in reverse to last week’s brilliant gold, with last week’s beaten finalists Sivarajan Solaimlai and Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan of India then downed 21-12 21-8 in the semi-finals.
🥇 Spanish Level 1 Champions 🏆 🔥🤩
What a week 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
📸 Badminton Photo pic.twitter.com/NpB8qCDolH
— Badminton England (@BadmintonEnglnd) April 27, 2024
That left Peruvian pair Nilton Quispe Ignacio and Guiliana Poveda Flores standing between them and the Spanish level one title, and a 21-15 16-21 21-12 triumph ensured a second tournament win in seven days.
Choong enjoyed another fine run in singles action, brushing aside Nina Kozlova and Fernandez Vargas to reach the last eight.
She then saw off Wu Yu-Yen 21-15 21-16, before falling to eventual winner Sumathy Sivan 21-13 21-16 in the semis.
Krysten Coombs and Daniel Bethell were the other English shuttlers in action, both exiting at the quarter-finals of the men’s singles.
Coombs won two of his three SH6 group-stage matches, with the sole loss a narrow reverse in the deciding game to second seed Vitor Tavares from Brazil.
Charles Noakes of France got the better of him in the quarter-finals, while Bethell advanced undefeated from his SL3 group before conceding a walkover to Canada’s William Roussy at the same stage.
