Chloe wins national champs
THE 2017 English National Badminton Championships Women’s Singles Trophy has been won by Loughborough College’s Chloe Birch.
The 21-year-old rising star already has 11 national junior titles to her name. She beat former English number one Elizabeth Cann when she was only 15 and competed for Team GB at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival.
Chloe, who has been studying for a BSc in Applied Sports Science with the College, says she is thrilled with the win – after being runner up at last year’s national championships: “I’m really happy with the result.
“I got to the finals last year, I was tired and I lost out but I’ve been training full time for the past 12 months and I’ve been playing lots of games – including quite a few internationals. So this year when I reached the final I had that hard work behind me and I felt really fresh.
“I played my first senior World Championships in August and that was a great experience. Now I’m going into the inter- national season and I feel really prepared to try to do some damage.”
Before that Chloe is preparing to graduate from Loughborough College. “The sport wanted me to go full time at 18 but education was important to me. It’s not easy being a student athlete but the College made it possible. They gave me the flexibility I needed to train and compete and to achieve academically. I am really grateful to them for that and really proud to be graduating soon.”
September will also see Chloe compete in the Belgium Open and the Czech Open followed by tournaments in Holland, France and Denmark.
She said: “The win at the nationals is a great boost, I’m getting fantastic experience at the bigger tournaments and hopefully I’ll be back at the World Championships next year.
“Everything is coming together. I’m training for around five hours every day. It’s busy, but I’m not complaining. I have the chance to play sport for a living.”