Between the 1-4th of July the Russian Challenger Event is taking place in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The Challenger event is the strongest on the European Circuit. An RVBA Team from Wales consisting of 3 players made the trip.
The event was the first on the new Badminton Europe circuit and the RVBA have made a great start with 16 year old Sarah Thomas making the ¼ finals where she will be up against Ukraine No1, World No59 Elena Prus.
Along the way Sarah beat Russian Kharlampovich 21-16, 21-15, and then beat Ukrainian Zharka 21-13, 21-13.

In the Ladies Doubles Sarah Thomas and Rachel Thomas went down to the 4th seeds Bibic and Golovanova 13-21, 7-21. A tough draw in the first game.

The mixed doubles saw the RVBA reach another ¼ final where Vaughan and Sarah Thomas will take on the Ukrainian 4th seeds Diptan and Zaravsky, with the Welsh feeling confident of reaching their first Challenger semi final event. Along the way Vaughan and Thomas beat Russians Tsibikov and Ponikarova 21-4, 21-8. Then beat up and coming Russians Khakimov and Chudentseva 21-18, 13-21, 21-9 who were in the final of the Portuguese International event in May.

Head coach Richard Vaughan commented “It’s another very positive result for both the Sarah in singles and Sarah and I in the mixed. Hopefully we can improve on this tomorrow and make the semi final. The ladies doubles was also a very good match, it was such a difficult draw.”

Next up for some RVBA player is the US Grand Prix in LA, USA, starting this Tuesday 6th July. The RVBA team is made up of Sarah Thomas, Rachel Thomas, and Richard Vaughan. The US Open will be great preparation for the World Badminton Championships in India this August, in addition to being an important qualification event to represent Wales at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games.