Ireland all but certain to advance to badminton QFs

Ireland all but assured themselves of a place in the quarter-finals of badminton’s European Mixed Team Championships yesterday with a 3-2 defeat of hosts Belgium at the Sportoase arena in Leuven near Brussels.

For Ireland, it was the perfect start to an event which has been run biannually since 1972, but one which they were gracing for the first ever time and the team gave itself the best possible start in the afternoon tie.

The sibling pair of Sam and Chloe Magee were first on court and their 21-10, 21-17 defeat of Nick Marcoen and Flore Vandenhoucke was complemented by Irish number one Scott Evans’ 21-13, 21-17 victory over Yuhan Tan.

Chloe Magee then returned to court for the women’s singles to face Lianne Tan and the double Irish Olympian (like Evans) secured the match and gave Ireland an unassailable 3-0 lead on the back of a 21-12, 21-17 scoreline.

The men’s doubles pairing of Scott Evans and Sam Magee then fell 21-12, 17-21, 21-15 to Matijs Dierickx and Freek Golinski while Sara Boyle and Rachael Darragh were beaten 21-13, 21-12 by Steffi Annys and Flore Vanerhoucke.

Ireland face second-ranked England this morning but know that, whatever the result there, they will take their place in the last eight unless Belgium can fashion a highly unlikely defeat of the English in the group’s final game later this evening.

“We came here to beat Belgium and we did that so we are all very happy,” said Chloe Magee.

“It’s a bigger challenge tomorrow but there is a good chance we can make the quarter-finals now and that’s very exciting for us to look forward to.”

The Ireland-England game is being streamed live from 9am Irish time on Badminton Europe’s BETV platform.