In February, youngsters from across England booked their places for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity at the YONEX All England Open Badminton Championships.
Here’s our look back at the best domestic action over the last month.
YONEX All England Open Friendly Match Selection Event (February 26)
Eight U11 players have been selected to play on the hallowed Center Court on the final day of the YONEX All England Open against a school team from Japan.
The selection event was held this past weekend at Walthamstow Hall Senior School and the five highest ranked boys and girls in singles and doubles were invited to attend.
The girls team includes Michelle Chen, Nok Yi Chui, Jennifer Ha, and Mutiara Mandala, while Olaf Kwiecien has been selected as the boys’ reserve player with Veronika Kodagi acting as the girls’ reserve.
Nottinghamshire Senior Gold (11-12 February)
Top seed Tashvi Parab prevailed in the women’s singles in Nottinghamshire, needing the final game deciders in both the semi-final and final.
Parab recovered from a game down against Jingchen Lu in the last four, winning 17-21 27-25 21-18.
In the final, Parab had to weather the return of second seed Jessica Allen to claim the title 21-17 19-21 21-15.
Feng Hong took home the men’s singles titles by defeating second seed Jamie Pearcy 21-13 21-12 in the final as Koon Fung Kelvin Ho and Pak Yu Ng also won the men’s doubles title in back-to-back games.
They defeated Paak Shing Chang and Paak Yee Osmond Chong 21-11 21-13, while Anne Hubscher and Magda-Sabrina Lozniceriu won the women’s doubles final 21-11 21-14 against Jingchen Lu and Zi Yang.
The mixed doubles final was equally straightforward as Barney Chua Yue Chern and Susanna Ogden defeated Joshua Young and Lucy Dodd 21-16 21-12.
The full results of the event can be found here.
Derbyshire U17 Gold 2023 (18-19 February)
David Ng won two of the three finals he contested in the Derbyshire U17 Gold event.
Partnering with Lucy Brierley, Ng won the mixed doubles titles with a 24-22, 21-19 victory over Daniel Kemp and Lucy Dodd.
He also claimed the 21-19 21-12 mixed doubles title against Edward Davey and Sonish Hathi when he teamed up with James Song.
Previously, the partners had been enemies in the men’s singles final*, with Song emerging victorious in a final decider, winning 21-13 10-21 21-12.
Lucy Brierley was also involved in a second final when she and Sofie Chong lost to Lucy Dodd and Grace Sachdeva 21-12 22-20 in the girls’ doubles final.
Anna Kalathil George prevailed in the women’s singles final by beating Eeva Lunn 21-12 21-9, with Sia Pandit winning the women’s singles final* Sia Pandit and Prarthana Reddy 21-12 21-13.
The full results of the event can be found here.
Kent U13 Gold 2023 (February 25)
Vedanshi Jain and Mudra Mayekar were victorious in the women’s doubles final at the Kent U13 Gold event with a 21-9, 21-7 win over Carol Joy and Ananya Sanil.
Etienne Fan and Nikhil Pulikkottil went home with the men’s doubles trophy after defeating Shevin Dias and Maciej Skowronski 21-10 21-15.
Pulikkottil also took victory in the men’s singles final* by beating Adam Alam 21-17 21-9 and Vedanshi Jain won the women’s equivalent 21-13 21-11.
Vedanshi also took mixed doubles gold with Nikhil Pulikkottil to achieve triple gold.
Carol Joy was dominant in her women’s singles finals beating Ava Dodkins 21-6 21-5 with Arjun Bhattiprolu winning the men’s event 21-16 21-11 against Shevin Dias.
The full results of the event can be found here.
If you want to try one of our competitions for the first time, try our bronze circuit for junior age groups or the level 4 circuit for seniors. More information about the competition here.
England Badminton National Championships (4-5 February)
National champions were crowned earlier in the month when Johnnie Torjussen defended his men’s singles titles for the second time.
The unseeded Kirby Ngan stormed the women’s singles titles when Chloe Birch and Jenny Wallwork combined for the first time since 2016 to claim the women’s doubles crown.
Find out all the results here.
Photos courtesy of Kent Badminton Ltd
