C’WEALTH GAMES R64 – Strong Northern Irish day

Canada upset Scottish hopes putting our Cooper and van Rietvelde in a tense extra point finish as Northern Ireland had a great day, progressing in six of seven encounters. The youngest player in the tournament played well, despite losing to Sri Lankan Niluka Karunaratne, whilst Thorpe and Eastmond beat their Caribbean rivals from Jamaica.

By Michael Burke, Badzine Correspondent, live from Glasgow.  Photos: Yohan Nonotte for Badmintonphoto (live).

The youngest player in the badminton at the Commonwealth Games is Abraham Ayittey of Ghana at the age of 14. On the day, he lost to Niluka Kurunaratne (pictured left) but played better than the scoreline 21-6 21-14 suggests.

Afterwards he was very happy with his performance. “ Yeah I really enjoyed that, this is the best place I have been selected for. I played well against someone ranked 94 and am just enjoying the exposure with the senior team.”

When told of his opponent’s age, Niluka said, “Wow, well this will be a really good experience for him to play in Glasgow. He definitely played very well, I’m glad to have helped his development.”

“I’m very happy to go through to the second round, and that should be an easy match so I’m confident to get through to the third. We’re already happy with how we’ve performed here in the team event, maintaining coming to the quarters, even though it was by a fine margin.”

Adrian Liu and Michelle Li of Canada disappointed the home fans as they put out Scots van Rietvelde / Cooper (pictured right) in straight sets, albeit in extra points in the second game.

“There were a few lucky ones in the last game.” Michelle said after the match, Adrian added, “I was so focussed on enjoying it I didn’t really notice we were in extra points though.”

Michelle spoke of the scratch pairing, “It was a pretty intense game for a first round. But yeah the team event got us all really hyped up so we’re just enjoying it at the moment.”

A Caribbean rivalry was played out as Barbados put their second mixed pair into the second round, as Dakeil Thorpe (pictured left) and Mariama Eastmond beat Palmer / Williams of Jamaica.

The first game was very close as the Bajans came from behind saving match points to go through to win.

Mariama spoke of the first game afterwards, “There was a little bit of nerves in that first set, I really needed to sort out my net shots.”

On beating neighbours Jamaica, Dakeil said, “It feels really good to beat them at the Commonwealth Games. It’s always a close match with Jamaica but this time we managed to take it. It’s good because everyone is watching this in Barbados, it is really boosting the sport at home.”

Northern Ireland also had a purple day as six of their players and pairs went through to the second round. Stephenson and Murphy (pictured right) were the last pair through, with a persistent performance against Cupidon and Ah-Wan of Seychelles.

It was a tough match and Alannah Stephenson’s second of the day. “We’re a bit of a scratch pair, I’m a singles player normally, but we’re coping well enough.”

Murphy spoke of the good day for the team; “Everybody won a match today and will be playing again tomorrow. Glad we didn’t disappoint going on last.”

They will have a tough second round though as they face the second seeds, “We had our teams mates play them in the team competition so we’ll watch the videos and do our homework.” Mused Murphy.

The full results for the day can be found here.