Sarah Thomas has been invited by Badminton Europe, to be part of the SOTX Team Europe 2012. Sarah will be involved in this exciting team who meets for 3 day camps throughout the year for high level training. Sarah will meet her fellow SOTX members in the first 3 day camp which will be held in Hungary during October.

Mid Glamorgan High Performance player Tsung Fong Mo enjoyed success at the weekend in winning the U15 singles title at the Harlow BE gold event.

Good start to the season for Tsung Fong Mo.

The RVBA's Vikki Jones won her opening singles match of the European Club badminton Championships in Holland today with a straight sets victory over the Belgium club - Saive.

Badminton club Seville Rinconada went on to win the match 6-1, leaving them favourites for the tournament and a semi final clash against hosts Dutch badminton club Velo.

Results can be found here - Badminton results

Classic Retro Match, the 1990 Asian badminton Games Mens Singles  Final Zhou Vs Yang Yang

The 2011 European Club Championships kicks off in Zwolle, The Netherlands this afternoon with 15 or Europe’s top clubs competing for the coveted title of Europe’s premier club.

Even without the top clubs from Denmark, Germany and Russia competing this year the European Club Championships always proves to be a fiercely competitive experience and a trophy that every European club wants to have in their trophy cabinet.

The 15 clubs head to Zwolle in the Netherlands for the second year running after BC Bischmisheim of Germany won the 2010 edition of the competition after winning the German Bundesliga in 2010.

This year’s favourites are Spanish club CB Soderinsa Rinconada with Richard Vaughan Badminton Academy player Vikki Jones who has been a key member in Rinconada efforts to retain the Spanish Badminton Club title again this year. Rinconada were the former team of Richard Vaughan, where they won a European Badminton Club Championship Silver and Bronze medal in 2008 and 2009.

Lara Lucas continued the recent success in the Spanish u15 and u19 national badminton championships by taking a silver medal in the u17 girls singles losing 21-15, 12-21, 17-21.

There were also bronze medals for Blanca Lucas and Ariadna Gallardo, winners of last week’s u15 Spanish National badminton title; and bronze medals for Blai Ramirez and Lara Lucas in the mixed doubles who narrowly lost to the tournament winners 23-25, 19-21.

Another great set of results for Catalan badminton. Next up will be the Spanish National Games at the end of the month.

More badminton news here - Badminton Catalunya.

In about 24 hours time, badminton will have a new world record to its name.

On Sunday, 5 June, 2011, more than 60 cities (including Barcelona, spain) and thousands of badminton fans across the world will “gather” for the largest badminton flashmobyet.

This initiative is the brainchild of Raphael Sachetat, a French photojournalist and the founder of a young independent badminton charity foundation, Solibad.

“This is a world’s first as it has never happened in sports before”, said Sachetat.

The RVBA's Sarah Thomas is at this week’s Spanish Badminton event in Madrid.

Thomas has a tough qualification draw Vs Vana (Estonia)...

Sarah Thomas reached the Last 16 of last week’s Slovenian Badminton Open. In a tough draw Sarah was leading against the tournament’s top seed 9-4 before Tvardy (Slovenia) retired with an injury. In the Last 16 Sarah lost in a close match to top Austrian player Mayer 20-22 17-21. A good performance for Sarah who is in the middle of A level exams.

In the doubles Sarah Thomas and Carissa Turner played their first Badminton Europe event together at the weekend and very nearly reached the final stages. Only a close loss against the top seeds and eventual winners 23-21 and 21-19 stopped them.

They will now look to build on this great start when competing in the upcoming Spanish Badminton Open

This weekend was the Welsh Badminton National Junior Championships at the Welsh Institute of Sport in Cardiff.

The RVBA players were represented in force and achieved five titles at the end of the weekend.

In the u13 Event, Gean Sou Mo won the first two titles continuing her fine form winning the u13 national singles and doubles events.

Brother, Tsung Fong Mo continued the family form taking the u15 boys singles title, getting runners up in the boys doubles and taking the forth medal along with sister Gean in the u15 mixed doubles. Four titles for the family.

In the u17 event, Aimee Moran defeated Jordan Hart in three games to take the u17 girls singles title, taking the fifth title for the RVBA.

RVBA Coach Richard Vaughan commented “It is a great weekend for those three young players and I hope they continue to keep training hard and improve so they can compete with the top European players. For the other young players I hope they can see the benefits of hard work and that these players success will inspire them to work even harder and make it an even bigger challenge for those players to reclaim their titles next year.”