Alfie Martin with his bronze medal in Poland

East Kilbride badminton ace wins U15 bronze at European Championship

Alfie Martin was in impressive form in Poland, alongside some of his Scotland team-mates

by · Daily Record

Badminton ace Alfie Martin claimed a bronze medal at the U15 European Championships in Poland earlier this month.

The 14-year-old teamed up with Carlie Junnor from Glasgow in the boys’ doubles and they made the podium.

First up, they played an Estonian pair, winning comfortably 21/6, 21/7, then took on a Ukrainian pair winning 21/15, 21/15. They moved onto the last 16 face the No1 seeds from Switzerland. In a nail-biting match, Alfie and Charlie clinched the win 21/17, 18/21 21/17.

In the quarter-final they faced a French pair, winning the first set 21/16, losing the second set 18/21 and fighting extremely hard to clinch the win in the third set 22/20, securing a medal.

The boys took on a very tough Denmark pair in the semi-finals, losing the first set 21/12. They dug in but lost out in a highly-competitive second set 21/19, forcing them to settle for bronze.

Alfie’s proud mum said: “Alfie has been training extremely hard this year in preparation for the European Championships, training 10 hours at school and 12 hours, five nights a week.

“He has been missing out on socialising with friends and family to competing in Scottish, English and European circuit tournaments in preparation.”

Alfie competed in two other events in Poland, but missed out on a medal. He played mixed doubles with Jaagruti Mannem from Glasgow. In the first round they beat a Spanish pair, then comfortably beat a Dutch duo before being beaten in the last 16 by the eighth seeds from Lithuania.

In the boys’ singles, Alfie beat the ninth seed for Spain in three sets in his first game and comfortably saw off a rival from Portugal to reach the last 16, where he lost 21/11, 21/12 to the number one seed from France.

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