Badminton: Bothwell ace earns first three Scotland caps

Feb 25 2010 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

BOTHWELL badminton ace Kirsty Gilmour received her first three Scotland senior caps during the Uber Cup European Qualifiers in Poland last week.

But the 16-year-old couldn’t inspire her country to victory, as Scotland crashed out at the quarter-final stage.

Kirsty (above) got off to a flier on her debut against Ukraine’s Mariya Ulitina, but lost 2-1 as the Scots crashed 3-2.

Gilmour then fought back well but was defeated 2-0 by France’s Perrine Lebuhanic as Scotland won their second Group E match 3-2.

Scotland then beat Poland 4-1, with Gilmour defeating Angelika Wegrzyn 21-1 21-14, her third singles match in as many days.

After three days Scotland topped their group on countback after France defeated Ukraine, but lost 3-0 to Russia in their quarter-final clash.

Because Russia took a commanding 3-0 lead it meant that Gilmour was denied a fourth cap of the week as Scotland bowed out.

Despite the defeat, Kirsty’s dad Brian reckons the tournament will have provided invaluable experience.

He said: “Kirsty thoroughly enjoyed the tournament and came back bouncing. The others in the team said she has really matured and is able to rally with players like that.”

lScotland’s Thomas Cup team stumbled to two heavy defeats against the Czech Republic and Germany, but claimed a 4-1 win over Bulgaria in their remaining Group D contest.

Although they dropped their first set, Bellshill’s Andrew Bowman and Watson Briggs beat Krasimir Yankov and Yulian Hristov 18-21 21-15 21-11.