Mariana just misses place in Swedish final
27th January 2009University of Bath student Mariana Agathangelou just missed out on a place in the mixed doubles final at the Swedish International badminton tournament in Stockholm.
The 20-year-old Coach Education and Sports Development student and her partner Robin Middleton had to fight their way through the qualifying rounds to reach the main draw of the competition.
They then comfortably beat Adam Cwalina and Malgorzata Kurdeiska from Poland 21-18, 21-9 in the opening round of the main draw and then beat the Danish pair of Christian John Skovgaard and Anne Skelbaek 21-12, 21-11.
That set up a quarter-final clash against the number two seeds Baptiste Careme and Laura Choinet from France. The English pairing lost the opening set 16-21, but then won the next two 21-16, 21-12 to beat the second seeds in 38 minutes.
Then they faced a semi against University of Bath Coach Education and Sports Development graduate Heather Olver and her partner Robert Adcock. Olver and Adcock took the tie 21-15, 23-21 to reach the final, but they couldn’t overcome Valeriy Atrashchenkov and Elena Prus of Ukraine there.
TeamBath player Carl Baxter also reached the semis of the men’s singles draw in Stockholm. The number eight seed beat Finland’s Ville Lang, seeded four, by 21-17, 21-14 to reach the semis, but then went down 21-13, 21-16 to number five seed Jan O Jorgensen. The Dane went on to win the title.