Over the first weekend of February - Saturday 3rd to Sunday 4th - the University of Nottingham played host to the 2024 English National Badminton Championships at our David Ross Sports Village. Alongside hosting the national showpiece on our campus, the tournament had plenty of #GreenandGold representation with current University of Nottingham students competing in the competition alongside Nottingham alumni and the best badminton talents in the UK.
The 2024 championships would be the second year in a row that the university would host the tournament, and current Nottingham sport scholar Kirby Ngan (pictured) would be looking to retain her women's singles title from 2023. Ngan would enter last years tournament unseeded, however her victory twelve months ago meant the pressure would be on for her to go back-to-back. However, Ngan showed no signs of nerves and lifted the title after defeating second seed Leona Lee in the final (21-14, 21-19) to retain her national championship! This victory cements the Faculty of Science Masters student's status as one of the brightest talents in the UK. Reflecting on the success, Ngan commented "I would like to thank UoN sport for their continuous support."
The men's championship would see a new victor as Nottingham alumni Johnnie Torjussen would not compete. However, the depth of talent that continues to flow through the University of Nottingham Badminton programme was on full display as another alumni in Harry Huang would reach the final and claim his first ever senior title after a 66-minute epic. We congratulate both Kirby and Harry on their performances and are delighted to see University of Nottingham connections claiming both singles national titles for 2024.
Alongside this singles success, there was also plenty of promising performances in the doubles. Alumni Sian Kelly would reach the women's doubles final with her partner Elizabeth Tolman to finish 2nd. Kelly remarked "I'm super happy with getting to my first senior national final, even better to have done it at Nottingham where I spent so much time studying and training! It is always nice to come back here." This performance rounded off a great weekend for Kelly who also reached the latter stages of the mixed doubles with Samuel Jones to claim 3rd.
Current Nottingham students Harry Lines and Susanna Ogden also made a run in the mixed doubles, reaching the quarter finals with Ogden reflecting that "I am happy with my performances and I can’t wait for the next challenge", whilst Lines would also reach the same stage in the men's doubles with Nottingham team mate Sam Smith. Lines and Smith put in some high quality performances as they beat full time England players to reach the latter stages. Speaking on the experience after the event, Sam Smith told us that "playing in Nottingham is a fantastic experience, and getting to the quarter finals was a great achievement on home turf" whilst Lines added "it was great to compete in our home hall at David ross sports village, very enjoyable event and happy with my successes."
Overall, the 2024 English National Badminton Championships saw huge amounts of success for the University of Nottingham both on and off the court. University of Nottingham Badminton head coach Martyn Lewis reviewed the experience by saying "seeing, watching and coaching our students on home turf competing with and beating the nations best players is testament to the hard work our players put in. It shows that players currently in the programme and gone through the programme we have here at Nottingham can reach high levels within the game.”
We congratulate all of our representatives on their success at the English Nationals and also thank everyone involved in the smooth delivery of the event. We were also delighted to see even more success on the very same weekend as another current University of Nottingham student in Rachael Woods competed at the 2024 Irish National Badminton Championships. Woods would reach the final of the women's doubles, as well as the quarter finals of the mixed doubles after more impressive performances - congratulations Rachael!
Next up for the University of Nottingham Badminton club is an away fixture against Team Skyfall in the National Badminton League, before a huge weekend of action at the 2024 BUCS National Championships in Sheffield where Kirby Ngan will look to retain yet another national title. You can keep up to date with all of the clubs success by following them on social media here.
If you'd like to take in some of the incredible talent on display here at the University of Nottingham, you can purchase tickets for our next National Badminton League home fixture on the 18th March here.
Image courtesy of Badminton England and credited to Action Photography.
You can find out more about the
Performance Badminton programme at the University of Nottingham here.
Posted on Sunday 18th February 2024