McGuire and Stalker favourites in Badminton Championships
Anthony McGuire (St Bride's Primary, Bothwell) and McLean Primary's Brooke Stalker will go into this Saturday's Under-11 National Junior Badminton Championships as double title favourites.
Anthony will be aiming to retain his boys’ singles title – he is a rare defending champion in the youngest of the season’s National Championships – in the one-day event staged at the National Badminton Academy in Scotstoun, Glasgow.
The Lanarkshire lad is seeded to meet Arduthie Primary School’s Daniel Harris in the final of the singles while his partner in the doubles is 3/4 singles seed Nicholas Hart (Knowetop Primary).
Law Primary School’s Ben Riddle is the other 3/4 seed in the singles, while his schoolmate, Harry Bent, and Hyndland’s Josh Taylor are the 5/6 seeds.
In the girls’ singles Brooke, the daughter of former BADMINTONscotland president, Karen Stalker, is seeded to meet Bruntsfield Primary’s Hannah Carlyle in the final while Glasgow’s Katrina Chan and Bruntsfield’s Ishbel McCallister are the 3/4 seeds.
Ishbel will be trying to follow in the footsteps of her brother, Hamish. He won the boys’ doubles title last year.
Katrina will partner Brooke in the doubles where they are seeded to meet Hannah and her partner, Katie Taylor (Dunbar Primary) in the final.
Anne Smillie, Chief Executive of BADMINTONscotland, said: “I am really looking forward to watching the emerging talent in the youngest of our age group National Championships.
“We have received entries from all over Scotland, which reflects how well our development programmes are working.”