DEAF SPORTS Badminton deaflympics

The Irish Deaf team commenced the men and ladies singles today at Taipei Gymnastic Sport centre.

First up was Amy Mc Millan on court at 9am against Klopp (Germany) seeded number 5 in the tournament. Mc Millan started slowly against the powerful Klopp and lost the first set at 21-3 however Mc Millan started to move her opponent in the second set with good clears to the corners and more accurate smashes down the side even so Klopp proved too consistent and took the second set 21-7.

The first round of Deaflympics singles events is played on a round robin basis and so Mc Millan plays Urazaliyeva from Kazakhstan tomorrow at 9am local time

John Kelly received a walk over in his 1st round robin match as his Kazakhstan opponent had a foot injury therefore meant Kelly only had to play his second match today at 16.40pm (local time)

Laura Burns's first match was against current World number 1 and number 1 seed in the Deaflympics, Kristina Dovydaityte from Lithuania, and this was Laura's best match at the tournament so far, strong clears and powerful smashing ensured that her opponent had to be on her guard. The 21-4, 21-5 score line did not do justice to the number of good long rallies that the world number one edged Laura out.

In her final, Laura plays Babalova from Slovakia in her final must win group match tomorrow. The top two from the group must qualify for the knockout stages commencing on Friday (11th). Dovydaite is already through from the group havening beaten Babalova earlier today so Laura's match against Babalova is a winner take all match.

Next up was Jim Lawlor against Anderson of Denmark seeded number 2 in the Deaflympics, Lawlor played well was up against an opponent who moved very well on the court and possessed good deception to the final score 21-4,21-5

The last game of the day was Kelly against world ranked number 26, Mueller of Switzerland, and Kelly got off on a bad start hence quickly lost the first set 21-4 but he upped the tempo in the second set and put more pressure on Mueller leading 11-10 at the break, however Mueller reasserted his authority and went on to win 21-14

Both Lawlor and Kelly must win matches against though opponents tomorrow to ensure to qualify from the group stages. Lawlor plays Hurley from Great Britain and Kelly plays with Indonesia player, Rohman.