Chloe crowns Magee family celebrations with singles title

IT was a busy, yet memorable weekend for the Magee family from Raphoe, Co Donegal.

Mon, 05 Feb, 2007 - 00:00

Colm O’Connor

Let us begin with 18-year-old daughter Chloe. Yesterday she won her first National Singles Badminton title when defeating Lisburn’s Lisa Lynas at Baldoyle.

“I really wanted to win this year. I have moved to Sweden and have been playing full time since last August. I felt like I had improved and this result obviously proves that,” she said.

Magee, who was top seed, took the opener 21-17 and though Lynas battled back in the second, the teenager again upped the tempo and won out 21-12.

There was little time to celebrate. Soon she was back on court along with Karen Bing to defend their women’s doubles title against Lisburn’s Dona Scott and Lynas. After an exciting battle the champions retained their crown (21-10, 21-14).

Chloe’s brothers, Daniel and Sam Magee, now enter the equation.

First they defeated top seeds Donie O’Halloran and Mark Topping in the semi-finals of the men’s doubles 21-13, 21-17 before accounting for the ex-Irish team pairing of Eugene McKenna and Graham Henderson (Lisburn) in the final, 21-14, 21-14.

Continued Chloe: “My family is big into badminton and I have been playing since I was four. This is a dream come true for me. This is the tournament that everyone wants to win.

“My next aim is to bring down my rankings and be in contention for Olympic qualification. At the moment my world ranking is 41 in doubles and 108 in singles. This year I want to make top 80 in the singles and break into the top 30 in the doubles.”

In the men’s final, defending champion Scott Evans retained his title after an epic battle with Lisburn’s Michael Watt — a nine-time winner of the competition.

Watt stormed into a 7-1 lead before Evans reeled him in and won the opening set 21-11. Evans dominated the second set from start to finish (21-4) to capture his second senior crown. Evans has little time to celebrate as he competes in the Austrian, Croatian and All England Opens over the coming weeks.