The draw has been revealed for the upcoming National Badminton Championships, which will take place at the National Badminton Centre between August 21-22.
Tokyo Olympians and top seeds Ben Lane and Sean Vendy will kick-off their search for national glory with a Round 1 tie against Cholan Kayan and Jack Taylor in the men’s doubles.
World No.19 duo Lane and Vendy will be itching to put their experience on sport’s greatest stage to good use back in Milton Keynes, having missed out in Japan in a tough group that featured the eventual gold medallists, Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin of Chinese Taipei.
Elsewhere in the men’s doubles, second seeds Callum Hemming and Steven Stallwood take on Zack Bobrowski and Nadeem Dalvi in their opening clash.
Matthew Clare and Ethan Van Leeuwen face David Hong and William Jones, while fellow 3/4 seeds Rory Easton and Zach Russ come up against Thomas Ashford and Adam Dochniak.
Hemming tops the seeds in the mixed doubles competition alongside Jessica Pugh, with David and Abigail Hong standing in their way of a spot in the quarter-finals. Second seeds Easton and Annie Lado are set to play Matthew Clare and Viki Williams in the first round.
In the women’s doubles, Williams and Jenny Moore are top seeds as they look to go one better than last year, when they were beaten in the final by Chloe Birch and Lauren Smith. They are straight through to the quarter-finals where they will play either Abbygael Harris and Hope Warner, or Katherine Arksey and Smrithi Shirol.
Top seed Alex Lane will begin the defence of his men’s singles crown in the second round against either Garrylee McMullen or Arif Wadud. 2020 runner-up and second seed Johnnie Torjussen will play the winner of the match between Blake Hoang and Dochniak.
🏸 Less than a week to go until badminton is back at the NBC! 🤩
And you can watch all the action from the National Badminton Championships on BETV 📺 https://t.co/QVxaHDbzI3 pic.twitter.com/uvoDypVZja
— Badminton England (@BadmintonEnglnd) August 16, 2021
Kayan – who won the men’s singles title at the Senior Gold recently – is similarly straight through to Round 2, where he will meet either Ollie Baczala or Bobrowski.
Freya Patel-Redfearn, beaten by Birch in the 2020 final, is the top seed in the women’s singles and she will play either Jessica Allen or Sarah Preece in Round 2.
Georgina Bland, fresh from her victory in the Senior Gold, is seeded second and will await the winner of Gauri Shidhaye and Cara Collins’ opening clash at the same stage.
With such an exciting line-up the latest chapter of a tournament first played in 1964 is set to be as competitive as ever. See the full draw for the National Badminton Championships here.
