28 November 2024
Paralympians Daniel Bethell and Jack Shephard efficiently defended their singles titles on the 2024 UK Para Badminton Championships.
Bethell, who received silver at Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, retained his males’s SL3 singles title whereas Shephard made it a fourth-consecutive triumph within the males’s SH6 class.
Shephard was additionally victorious within the SH6 males’s doubles alongside fellow Paralympian Krysten Coombs.
There have been additionally singles victories for Jack Wilson, within the males’s SU5 class, Anthony Forster within the SL4, David Follett within the WH1 and Gregor Anderson within the WH2.
The ladies’s singles lessons noticed victory for Anya Butterworth within the SH6 class, as she halted Paris Paralympian Rachel Choong’s reign as UK champion, who sadly needed to pull out as a result of sickness.
Lesley Linham earned her maiden title within the WH2 class, whereas Emma Stoner took the SL4 crown for the fourth time in a row and Cambell Plant received the SL3 class.
Stoner and Plant then teamed as much as take the SL3/U5 ladies’s doubles title, whereas Linham mixed with Arlene McManus for victory within the WH1/2 ladies’s doubles.
Singles victors Follett and Anderson mixed forces to nice aplomb within the WH1/2 males’s doubles, whereas it was success for Forster and William Smith within the SL3/4 males’s doubles.
Robert Donald and Curnow Pirbhai Clarke emerged victorious within the SU5 males’s doubles.
The standing combined doubles title went to Donald and Cambell, whereas Chris Stewart teamed up with Linham for her third title of the day within the WH combined doubles.
Anya Butterworth additionally secured a second title, combining with Isaac Masion within the SH6 combined doubles.
Para Badminton GB head coach Wealthy Morris stated: “It was the most effective UK Champs so far. All of the Paralympians had been there and we had a record-breaking variety of juniors enter the event.
“We had a nine-year-old lad from Wycombe ending up in the identical group as Dan Bethell and managed to share a courtroom with him which was a stunning expertise for everybody within the venue.
“We had a whole lot of children throughout the lessons, the longer term is vibrant. It’s so vital to have these children coming by, it’s the way forward for the game.
“With out these guys taking part in on a weekly foundation, the place does the subsequent Paralympian come from?
We’re properly underway on the UK Para-Badminton Championships in Sheffield! 🤩
An amazing degree of competitiveness is on present right this moment. 👀#ASportForEveryone pic.twitter.com/R5x0RmhiIB
— Badminton England (@BadmintonEnglnd) November 23, 2024
“It was a tremendous weekend to be part of, to see all these gamers who’re taking part in on a weekly foundation in able-bodied golf equipment the place they stay, with well-established coaches all turning up and getting higher.
“The usual now’s unimaginable. It’s good to see individuals’s improvement.”
Images courtesy of CK Yew.
