Badminton Wales RVBA The RVBA (supported by Memory Lane Cakes) players Sarah Thomas and Richard Vaughan made the final of the Romanian Badminton Open in the mixed doubles. In the opening round the RVBA pair beat Charalambidis/Jensen (Dk) 21-17, 21-18, next in the ¼ Final they beat Turkeys Oruc/Kurtulus 21-11, 21-16.

This lined up the semi final tie against the World No34 pair from Bulgaria Dimova and Makaraski who had been in fine form of late beating Top GB pair Lindley last month at the Swedish Badminton Open.

In the opening set the Bulgarians controlled throughout taking the set 21-9. In the second game the Bulgarians took the foot off the gas, changing tactics and allowing the RVBA pair to control the mid court taking the second set 21-17, and similarly the 3rd game a 21-19. A great win for the RVBA pair, especially Sarah Thomas who’s only 16.

In the final is another inform pair, winners of a few of the Badminton Europe Circuit tournaments this year Atrashchenkov and Prus from the Ukraine.
In the main draw of the ladies singles event, RVBA’s Rachel Thomas went out in the first round to Turkeys Kormaz in two close sets 21-17, 21-19.

Sarah Thomas won her first match in the main draw against another Turkish player Toyran, winning comfortably 21-13 21-13.

In the next round she was up against the No2 seed Zechiri from Bulgaria, pushing the inform Bulgarian all the way in both sets going down 15-21, 13-21. A good result for the u17 British Quad Champion.

In the ladies doubles the RVBA pair, the Thomas sisters went out to tough Austrian opponents in the quarter final 16-21 14-21.

The RVBA Badminton club in Cardiff, Wales contains a group of young aspiring Olympic Badminton players, and is directed by Double Olympian and former World No7 Richard Vaughan.