Double gold for Lydia in Wales

Badminton prodigy Lydia Powell bagged two gold medals at a leading competition in Wales at the weekend.

The 15-year-old won the girls’ singles and mixed doubles at the Badminton England Under-17 Gold Tournament in Cwmbran.

After comfortably winning her box in the singles, Powell pulled through two thrilling matches in the semi-finals and final to emerge triumphant.

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She edged out top seed Zoe Hallam (Staffordshire) 15-21, 21-19, 26-24 before pipping Terri-Lee Holmes (Lancashire) 21-18, 13-21, 21-19. Hallam and Holmes were both born in 1995 - a year earlier than the Hastings talent.

Powell and new partner Jed Arskey (Buckinghamshire) were the top seeds for the mixed doubles and the bronze medalists at an early season tournament in Milton Keynes won their group pretty convincingly.

They then narrowly defeated Matthew Close (Warwickshire) and Holmes 10-21, 21-18, 21-17 in the semi-finals prior to overcoming David King (Sussex) and Nicola Gresty (Gloucestershire) 21-14, 21-16 to clinch the title.

Although in her first year at under-17 level, Powell was invited to attend the national doubles camp in that age group at Milton Keynes this week and she was 54th in the national women’s singles rankings for September.

The full article will appear in Friday’s Hastings Observer.

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