Japan Para International 2018

Badminton Ulster continued their preparation towards European, World and Paralympic success with the newly created support from both Sporting Winners (Sport Northern Ireland) and the Irish Sports Council (Athlete Carding) contributing provincially and nationally to athletes with Paralympic potential.

Both Niall McVeigh and Andrew Moorcroft were entered to play in Japan to compete in the World ranking event being held in Tokyo.

This was part of the ongoing preparation as we build momentum toward Paralympics 2020 qualification.

Niall SS6 World number 5 and Andrew SS6 World Number 24 were due to be competing in SS6 Mens Singles and Mens Doubles in a newly supported Mens Doubles partnership but unfortunately an injury sustained late in the previous tournament in Thailand meant McVeigh had to withdraw from playing under medical advice and use the event to prepare away from the sport specific side of the game.                                                                                                                                                                                             

Andrew therefore played within a tough group against players all ranked above him including World Number 2 Krysten Coombs. Despite the tough opposition Andrew Moorcroft displayed strong performances building on previous highlighted areas and although losing all three matches can take pride in the close performances to build on for the future.

See below link for all results here

Some great areas of learning for future SS6 programme development and a scratch partnership with a new SS6 player from Korea in only his second International event, enabled some strong and competitive tournament practice at International level against the Worlds number 1 couple and leading pairs in Men’s Doubles.

The players were supported during the event by Les Dewart Para Performance Coach (Ulster Badminton) and Kevin McGuigan Performance Analyst (Sport Northern Ireland Sports Institute).

Thanks must also go to all Staff at the Sports Institute for support to both players pre tournament support and admin support at Ulster Badminton/Badminton Ireland.

Next event for the UB/Ireland Para Team will be the European Championships being held in Rodez   France 30th October-4th November 2018.