The Ipswich and District Badminton League Under 18 Championships took place at Northgate Sports Centre, where Patricia Kou from the Meridians club was the star performer, scooping a hat-trick of titles.
The first of Kou’s successes was the girls’ singles where she won all her matches in a round-robin event ,ncluding a 21-5, 21-3 victory against Mathilda Barnard (Woodbridge) who finished as runner-up.
Kou, partnered by Anna Keeble (YMCA) continued her winning run to lift the girls’ doubles trophy, with the Woodbridge pair of Barnard and Beth Scahill taking second place, and then completed her treble by taking the mixed doubles title with Andrew Sheat (Waterfront).
In the mixed event, Ellie Davis and Craig Newcombe (Stowmarket) halved their match 21-20, 11-21 with Kou and Sheat, which helped them to take the runners-up position.
Thomas Hunt (Stowmarket) and Blake Hoang (YMCA) won their respective groups to take their place in the boys’ singles final.
Hunt eased into a 6-0 lead and retained the initiative to take the first game 21-13 but it was Hoang who came out on top in the second, 21-17.
With a depth of clear, exceptionally strong for such a young player at this level of badminton, and good drop shot control, Hoang won the third game 21-17 to complete a singles double, having won the Under 15 event the previous week.
In the boys’ doubles final, the Stowmarket pairing of Ben Bennett-Day and Hunt won the first game, 21-16 against Newcombe and Sheat, but failed to capitalise on a 20-18 lead in the second, losing 20-22. In the deciding game, Bennett-Day and Hunt came out on top, winning 22-20 to take the title.
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