DEAF SPORTS Deaflympics Badminton

Ladies Doubles

Teenage girls took on Lithuanian girls in the first round they were demonstrating team work and both showed some great poise in their second set as their last Deaflympics game but lost out at 21-3 and 21-5. However both are going home smiling as Amy says "the experience of the Deaflympics as a whole has been phenomenal and I am glad I got the chance to play with top players, I can excel from today to my future in badminton"

Mixed Doubles

John Kelly and Laura Burns took on Yu and Choi of Korea in the first round of the mixed doubles this morning, which proved to be tough as the Koreans were in superb physical shape and demonstrated an almost perfect defensive technique.

Burns and Kelly lost at 21-5, 21-6, however the score line did not reflect on the quality of the rallies on show. Both Irish players combined really well with Burns showing great composure at the net and taking on the Korean lady at the net with some very accurate blocks to the net. These exchanges meant that the Korean lady was forced to lift, something she was quite comfortable to do because of her great backhand defensive technique. Whereas Kelly was able to control the rallies with powerful smashes and drop shots but the Korean's defences proved too hard to beat as they could move the shuttle to any point on the court.
Kelly was given a walk over in men's singles against Czech Zeman who didn't turn up which means he is through the next round playing with Russia tomorrow.

Later on Jim Lawlor and Amy Mc Millan received a by the second round of the mixed doubles where they faced the Korean number 2 seeds- Seonhwa Song and Hyunwoo.

This was a tough draw for the Irish but both battled hard against quicker opponents but lost in two straight sets 21-5, 21-6. The match was summed up well when Amy played one of her tight blocks to the net but the Korean lady demonstrated a great skill by taking a difficult shot and tumbling the shuttle back tight over the net and for the shuttle to land on the outside edge to the tramline.

Mc Millan says "I had shoulder strain in the ladies doubles but after treatment it was much better, it was hard battling against the Koreans but we did well playing against a team favourite to win a medal"