4 December, 2023
Rajvi Parab claimed the girls’ singles U17 English National Championships title, a week on from being pipped by her sister in the U19 category.
Parab added gold to silver and bronze from the week prior, storming to victory at the National Badminton Centre, beating Sia Pandit 23-21 21-19 in the U17 final.
The promising talent, who competed alongside and against sister Tashvi in the U19s, won one of five medals awarded on the final day, as an array of young potential impressed in Milton Keynes.
The tournament’s second seed, Parab eased through the first two rounds and defeated her doubles partner Mia Fox 21-10 21-10 in the quarter-final.
The contest booked a place with 3/4 seed Yashica Racharla in the semi-final, where she pulled off a 21-11 21-14 win to land a spot in the final with Pandit.
In her girls’ doubles partnership with Fox, the pair were forced to retire in the quarter finals against Aahna Bhatia and Tranthini Kumaravel who advanced to the semi-finals with the score at 21-16 19-17.
Daniel Kemp came away from the tournament with two gold medals around his neck after teaming up with Sumedh Reddy Chittamuru to beat top seeds James Song and David Ng 21-17 18-21 21-13 in the open doubles.
Kemp also came out on top in the mixed doubles category alongside Lucy Dodd with a 21-15 21-13 win in the final against Edward Davey and Lucy Brierley.
Song claimed the open singles title after blazing through to the tournament climax with a notable semi-final win against Sonish Hathi, taking the tie 23-21 21-18.
It was a top two seeded contest in the final with Oliver Wu and the open doubles finalist made no mistake, beating his opponent 21-7 21-16 in 27 minutes.
Top seeds Brierley and Sofie Chong claimed the girls’ doubles crown with a 21-17 17-21 21-19 in a three-game thriller with second seeds Grace Sachdeva and Lucy Dodd.
With special thanks to Yonex, Official Sports Equipment Partner for the English National Championships Series
