RVBA -Sarah and Rachel Thomas Thomas Sisters fall in the Quarter final of the Bulgarian Badminton Open

The RVBA supported by Memory Lane Cakes’ had three players in this week’s Bulgarian Badminton Open. The event was played in Sofia from the 1st to the 4th of October and makes up part of the European Badminton Circuit. Sarah and Rachel Thomas both had difficult matches against qualifiers in the ladies singles, and a tough opening ladies doubles match versus the Turkish first pair. While Sarah Thomas and Richard Vaughan had a tough opening game in the mixed doubles against the top Swedish badminton pair.

Badminton Wales

            The tournament started with the ladies singles and Sarah Thomas against qualifier number five Sorokina from Kazakhstan. In a tough encounter the more experienced player came out victorious  with Sorokina taking the match 10-21, 22-24.
Older sister Rachel Thomas repeated her first round tie of the Russian Challenger Event with a first round match against promising Russian Polikparpova. In a tough match the Badminton Wales doubles specialist went down 8-21, 5-21.

The mixed doubles saw the toughest opening round match against top Swedes Foo, and Kuikova. Both sets started off close with the Swedish pair taking control taking the match 12-21, 10-21.

In the ladies doubles the Thomas sisters were up against Turkish top pairing of Bayrak and Kurtulus.      A really tough match saw the Welsh girls lose the opening set, but the Badminton Wales pair came out victorious 16-21, 21-13, 21-17. A great win. The second round saw the Thomas sisters play local Bulgarian National Team players in Nikolova, and Lungova who they beat 21-7, 21-9.

The quarter finals took place on Saturday 3rd October with the sisters up against the tournament top seeds of Canadian Reid and German Gethrer, recent semi finalist of the China Badminton Super Series Event. In a good start t the match the Badminton Wales pair was narrowly down at the half way point in the first set 8-11. The top seeds showed their experience in the latter stages closing it 13-21. The second set followed in a similar fashion with the tournament favourites taking it 9-21.

RVBA Head coach Richard Vaughan said “The highlight of the tournament has been the ladies doubles. The girls had a great win over the Turkish in the first round, and have played well today against the top seeds. The previous tournament the girls have shown a considerable improvement but have been unlucky to lose in close games, so it is great they have a result to show their improvement. The mixed was the most disappointing as it was a game we could have won and lost rather easily.”

Also this weekend RVBA u17 player Aimee Moran took part in the Swiss u17 Badminton Championships in Lausanne. In a tough group with the second seed Aimee was unable to qualify through to the latter stages.

Next up for the RVBA is the Cyprus Badminton Open next weekend in Nicosia.


Wales Badminton RVBA

The RVBA supported by Memory Lane Cakes is an elite group of young aspiring Olympic Badminton players coached by former World No 7, European and Commonwealth Medallist Richard Vaughan from Cardiff, Wales.
The RVBA is supported by former Irish Olympic Coach Donal O Halloran, World No32 Dr Piret Hamer, and top British junior Liam Ingram. Top Sports Physio Leon Vaughan provides physio support.

RVBA players Tim Stranks, and Sarah Thomas won the British u17 badminton singles titles in 2009.

The RVBA is proudly supported by Memory Lane Cakes and would like to thank them for their continued support. Additionally the RVBA has established numerous partnerships with Caerphilly County Borough Council, Glamorgan University, Physio4Motion, FD Systems, Catalan Badminton Association and others which have enabled the RVBA players to benefit from numerous opportunities. The Cardiff 10kmis a regular RVBA (Memory Lane Cakes) fund raising event for various charities.

www.rvba.co.uk  & www.richardvaughan.net