South Africa’s badminton campaign at the Commonwealth Youth Games ended with the men’s doubles quarter-final exit against top seed Malaysia.
South Africa sent a four-man team to the Isle of Man, which consisted of Andries Malan, Reneshan Naidoo, Elsie de Villiers and Jennifer van den Berg. The group is coached by Chantal Botes.
The men’s doubles of Malan and Naidoo was South Africa’s most impressive run in the doubles division as they were the only ones to reach the quarter-final stage. They beat the Falkan Islands 21-13 and 21-10 before going down in a tough tie against Malaysia 21-9 and 21-11 on Saturday. The women’s doubles of De Villiers and Van den Berg lost their first match 21-14 and 21-12 against Sri Lanka while both mixed doubles team failed to advance from the opening round.
In the individual divisions, Naidoo and De Villiers were the best performers as they reached the round of 16 before losing to England’s Rhys Walker (21-14 and 21-8) and Australia’s Tara Pilven (24-22 and 21-12) respectively.
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