05/11/2015
The Redbridge Badminton Academy and Performance Squad continued their good form with five more gold medals at local and National tournaments.
Three academy players, entering their first local tournament, collected medals in the boy’s singles events. Aron Jones was runner up in the year 5/6 event and Ben Mathew went one better in the year 8/9 boy’s singles winning gold. Anirudh Nair followed up in the year 10/11 boys singles winning Redbridge’s second gold. Redbridge Sports Centre’s badminton development officer, Martin Lawrence, was very pleased with the trio’s efforts. “Playing in their first tournaments and winning medals is a great achievement. These players have only been playing for a couple of years and all the coaches at the centre are proud of their efforts.”
The Performance players continued their strong start to the season at the Suffolk U17 Silver tournament. Chandana Nagaraj won the girls singles without dropping a set and paired up with fellow PC player Vidhi Garg to win her second gold medal of the tournament as the pair won the girls doubles.
The Essex U15 Silver tournament held at Redbridge Sports Centre gave the PC players an opportunity to play on home courts. Akhil Pillai, playing an age group up, battled his way to the semi-final of the boy’s singles where he lost to local player Brandon Yap and collected a bronze medal. Pillai paired up with fellow PC player Kaushik Rajesh, and beat the number one seeds on their way to the final of the boy’s doubles and a well-earned silver medal. Yap and partner Jack Lau ran out winners of the boy’s doubles in two close fought games.
PC player Liam Purton has been rewarded for all his recent success and is now ranked number 1 in England for U12 boy’s singles. Clive Palmer, head coach of the Redbridge PC, is rightly pleased with Liam’s rise up the ranking. “Liam always gives 100% and listens to the advice the coaches give him. His hard work has been rewarded and I hope that this inspires him and the other PC players to continue working hard.”
