October 15, 2022
England begin their quest for global glory at the BWF World Junior Mixed Team Championships 2022 in Santander on Monday.
A 10-strong team will compete in Spain as the tournament returns for the first time since 2019 when Indonesia ended China’s five-year run as champions.
England secured a 3-2 play-off win against India to finish 11th but will aim to improve on that before the individual World Junior Championships begin a week later.
England have been drawn in Group D and start their campaign on Monday morning against Canada, who finished 25th last time.
This coming Monday, we send off Team England Jr. 🏴 to the World Juniors Championships 2022 in Spain!
Excited to see England’s best on court with the rest of the world 🌎 Team games start on Monday against Canada 🇨🇦 & Singapore 🇸🇬
📊: https://t.co/te4o0MuAdQ pic.twitter.com/VN4qqQccjY
— Badminton England (@BadmintonEnglnd) October 15, 2022
The highest seeds in the group, England will then take on the tricky challenge of Singapore later on Monday before facing Tahiti on Tuesday. They round out the group against the Netherlands on Wednesday, with only the top team from each group making it through to the quarter-finals.
Teams will compete across men’s singles and doubles, women’s singles and doubles and mixed doubles in a best-of-five format.
The England team, made up of the nation’s best players 18 and under, include Lisa Curtin and Estelle van Leeuwen, who will be searching to add world medals to the European Championship silvers they won in August.
Curtin said: “I’m really looking forward to seeing what I can do on the world stage because I haven’t really seen some of the Asian players before.
A Day-in-the-Life mini vlog 🎥 filmed by Lisa Curtin, our Junior Women’s Singles player as she prepares for #WorldJuniorChampionships2022 🇪🇸
Go watch it here: https://t.co/W7xF8MEfRW
Let us know what you think? 💬😁
— Badminton England (@BadmintonEnglnd) October 13, 2022
“I obviously want to win quite a few rounds, if that’s possible but I am just going to relax and try and take the experience as a really good one.”
The duo also claimed gold medals at the Polish U19 Junior international last month, while Curtin added individual gold.
Nadeem Dalvi, who also triumphed in the men’s doubles, is on the flight to Santander, alongside individual silver medallists Michael Pang and Leona Lee.
The team is completed by Sam Jones, Blake Hoang, Jia Bin Lee, Chloe Dennis and Tashvi Parab.
Squad: Nadeem Dalvi, Michael Pang, Sam Jones, Blake Hoang, Jia Bin Lee, Lisa Curtin, Chloe Dennis, Leona Lee, Tashvi Parab, Estelle Van Leeuwen
World Mixed Team Championship Fixtures:
v Canada, Monday 17 October 8am (BST)
v Singapore, Monday 17 October 4pm
v Tahiti, Tuesday 18 October 12pm
v Netherlands, Wednesday 19 October 4pm
