On the 20th of April, players travelled from all over Powys for Brecon’s Dragon Event. This event was one of the first junior tournaments to be played in the area since Covid, and some brilliant junior badminton was played! Play started promptly at 12pm with the U13 and U17 singles. We saw some brilliant sportsmanship from all of the 31 players – For many, it was their first tournament. The development team were hugely impressed with how they conducted themselves and the enthusiasm that they approached the event with!
The U13 girls singles came down to an incredibly close final between Baylis and Solomiia, with Solomiia taking gold and Baylis taking silver. Huge congratulations to both players for a lovely standard of play! Meanwhile, in the U13 boys, three groups of players battled it out for a place in the final. Morgan took gold after an incredibly close final game with Dan P, 22-20. Oscar D took home bronze before returning to court with Dan P to play doubles. The U13 doubles was an open event, with the boys and girls teaming up for some more brilliant matches. We were so impressed to see players giving it their all – Morgan and Oscar S took first place, with Dan P and Oscar D close on their heels. Newly formed partnership, Dan E and Peter, played superbly and took home bronze.
In the U17s Boys Singles, another three groups of players were working their way through to the final. After some very close semi-finals matches, the results came in as 1st: Lucas, 2nd: Luca, 3rd: Dom and 4th: Tom. Many of these players will be returning to court in Cardiff next week to play the Top Schools event, and we wish them luck. The U17 girls was similarly hotly contested, with Bella (1st), Portia (2nd) and Ellie (3rd) taking the medal positions.
The U17 boys had returned to court for their doubles matches, with Luca and Dom taking gold, Tom and Arthun taking silver, and Lucas and Vasyl taking bronze. The standard of play in these matches was excellent.
The U17 girls had two groups of players moving through to the finals. Bella and Hazel came in 1st, with Ellie and Portia coming in 2nd. Rose and Lexie won bronze, narrowly beating Isla and Eva by a point.
The entire tournament had a superb atmosphere, and we would like to thank all of the players for making this possible. The sportsmanship and support of each other was fantastic, and enabled us to get through a huge amount of games in a short period of time. See you at the next one!