Wales shuttlers excel in short run of the European Men’s and Women’s Team Championships
The men’s and women’s teams of the Wales registered their mark by putting some great shows in their short run in the European Men’s and Women’s Team Championships in Amsterdam.
Both teams finished in the early stages but they managed to earn a victory each, over their rivals in final matches of their expedition.
On opening day of the event, the Welsh men and women were put against strong teams like Bulgaria and France. The Welsh men were blown away by Bulgaria with a 5-0 margin.
However, the Welsh women team did not allow the French rivals to seal the victory easily and they took the French all the way.
Some brilliant individual performances were worth to clap as the duo Vikki Jones and Bethan Higginson clinched the last doubles game and the singles player Carissa Turner lost a match point against the French Perrine Lebuhanic after keeping the scorers busy
for 45 minutes to give the final score sheet of 10-21, 21-18 and 22-24.
The Wales women team had their next encounter with Belgium and despite of losing the match there were again some great performances by the both doubles teams.
The Welsh men challenged the fourth seeded Russia and after 5-0 defeat they still earned a round of applause for putting up a great show.
The Welsh presence was felt finally when the both ladies and men rose as triumphant on the last day of their marathon.
The men thrashed Portugal with convincing 4-1 margin while the Welsh ladies clinched the solo victory of the event with their gusty performance against Iceland. This nail biting match ended with the final match point situation of 3-2.
Against Portugal, the male singles shuttler Daniel Font grabbed the first match point by nailing his opponent Tomas Nero and levelled the lead after the first singles game loss.
The last singles game belonged to Wales as Martyn Lewis buried his challenger Hugo Rodrigues and raised the Welsh lead to 2-1.
The Portugal’s first doubles team Pedro Martins- Hugo Rodrigues got pale in front of the Welsh duo Oliver Gwilt and James Phillips and the Wales won the decider with final score of 21-13 and 21-13.
Portugal threw away the fourth point as its duo had to quit due to injury and the Wales claimed the 4-1 victory.
Despite the fact that the Welsh expedition was put to halt in just preliminary round, some individual players were class act. But their efforts were fritter away by the others who could not rise on the occasion.
Few more joint performances and the Wales will reserve a respectable spot in Euro badminton cult.
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