8 August, 2023
England picked up victories over Israel and Italy to finish second in their group at the European U17 Team Championships in Vilnius.
The 10-strong squad started their campaign in the Lithuanian capital against Israel, sealing a narrow 3-2 win to begin their tournament last Friday.
England’s James Song got the team off to a bright start with a straight games victory versus Shon Leitman, before Alina Bergelson levelled the tie for Israel with a win over Prarthana Reddy.
But Sonish Hathi and Edward Davey won their boys’ doubles rubber to put England back in front and Lucy Brierley and Sofie Chong followed up with victory in the girls’ doubles to give the team an unassailable lead. Daniel Kemp and Lucy Dodd were later beaten in the mixed doubles.
That was then followed by a rampant 5-0 victory over Italy in England’s second rubber, by far their most impressive performance of the week.
All the best to Team England 🏴 who are heading to the U17 European Badminton Championships in Lithuania 🏸
Bring on the challenge! 💪🏼 pic.twitter.com/kp9KKmqaBd
— Badminton England (@BadmintonEnglnd) August 1, 2023
A 21-14 21-15 victory for Sia Pandit in her girls’ singles match got England off to a strong start, and that was followed by a battling triumph for David Ng in his boys’ singles tie.
Brierley and Chong then sealed the tie with a second straight girls’ doubles win, before further victories for Ng and Song in the boys’ doubles, and Davey and Brierley in the mixed, completed a fantastic afternoon of play.
With only one team from each group progressing to the knockout stages, England knew that victory was needed in their final tie of the round robin stage against Ukraine – on paper the favourites to progress.
And ultimately it was a step too far, with Ukraine sealing a 5-0 triumph to reach the quarter-finals.
However there were some encouraging displays, most notably Hathi pushing Fedir Tiurin all the way in a three-game contest.
Overall there were huge positives to take ahead of the individual championships, which got underway on Tuesday.
England are in Vilnius with special thanks to Yonex, the official clothing supplier of the England National Team.
Full results for action at the European Under 17 Championships can be found here
