Mariana claims Scottish title
25th November 2008University of Bath student Mariana Agathangelou scored the biggest success of her badminton career by winning the women’s doubles title at the Bank of Scotland International Badminton Championships.
Mariana and her Scottish partner Jillie Cooper beat Swedish number two seeds Emelie Lennartsson and Emma Wengberg 21-17, 21-13 in Sunday’s final of the championships in Glasgow.
Mariana is studying for a degree in Coach Education and Sports Development at the University of Bath and was winner of the latest TeamBath athlete of the month award, which is supported by the Bath Fat Face store.
The 20-year-old and her partner were unseeded for the championships but accounted for top seeds Rachel van Cutsen and Paulien van Dooremalen from the Netherlands in the quarter-finals 18-21, 21-13, 24-22.
They then went on to beat Ireland’s number four seeds, Bing Huang and Chloe Magee by 21-12, 16-21, 21-17 in the semis.
“We knew playing the top seeds would be our hardest game, but that if we got through that we’d have a good chance of winning it,” said Mariana, who only teamed up with Jillie this season. This tournament was only their forth together.
“It’s been going really well, we work well around each other,” added Mariana “This was probably my biggest success yet.”
Mariana finished runner-up in the women’s doubles competition at the same tournament last year, partnering Gabby White.
Meanwhile, Richard Vaughan won the men’s singles title at the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Individual Championships at the University of Nottingham at the weekend. He dispatched former TeamBath player Harry Wright, now at Leeds Met, in the semis before beating another Met player, Lim Kenn, 21-18, 21-14 in the final.
There were also impressive performances by three Advanced Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence (AASE) students at the recent Under-17 Gold tournament in Cwmbran. Josh Green beat fellow TeamBath player Chris Coles 19-21, 24-22, 21-13 in the final to win the boys’ singles title.
Chris, and partner Matthew Nottingham, won the boys’ doubles title, while Emily Hollis and her partner won the girls’ doubles.