National Badminton at Bell's

The beginning of next month will see some of the country’s finest badminton players flock to Bell’s Sports Centre as Perth once again plays host to the Yonex Scottish National Badminton Championships – the 17^th consecutive year that the event has come to the Fair City.

And there’s local interest as Kinross star Patrick MacHugh will be defending two titles that he picked up in 2017 – the men’s doubles and the mixed doubles – fresh off the back of some good performances on the continent in recent weeks.

The Commonwealth Games athlete, who represented Scotland at the 2014 Games in Glasgow, will once again line up on court alongside his doubles partner Martin Campbell as the pair look to defend a title they won twelve months ago. If they are to do so, they will have to go against the seedings as this year’s top-seeds and favourites for the title are Alex Dunn and Adam Hall who won both the Irish Open and the Turkey International just last month.

GALLERY

MacHugh and Campbell are also in form and narrowly missed out on winning the Swedish Open last week when the pair were pipped in the final. Former Kinross High School pupil Patrick will also have his eyes on retaining the mixed doubles title, which he won with his partner Kirsty Gilmour – the Scottish women’s number one.

The pair were unseeded when the lifted the trophy last year but this time go into the event as top-seeds with the added pressures that come along with such a tag. Adam Hall and Ciara Torrance are just behind the pairing in the current rankings and will provide a stern test for Patrick and Kirsty.

It’s an opportunity for the people of Perth to see the best players in the country taking to the fantastic courts at Bell’s once again and all five defending champions across the various different disciplines will be back to defend their titles.

Along with MacHugh, Kieran Merrilees returns to defend the men’s singles crown and Kirsty Gilmour also has two titles she is looking to retain having won the women’s singles last year to go alongside her mixed doubles win. A World Championship quarter-finalist, she is undoubtedly among the world’s elite. Julie MacPherson and Eleanor O’Donnell will hope to defend the women’s doubles crown.

Tickets for the weekend-long event are on sale now from Badminton Scotland or alternatively you can pick them up at Bell’s Sports Centre over the three tournament days of February 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th.

The draw will be available online on the Badminton Scotland website from Wednesday 31^st January.

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The Yonex Scottish National Badminton Championships are staged at Bell’s Sports Centre in Perth, courtesy of Perth and Kinross Council.

Badminton Scotland would like to express their gratitude to Yonex UK, Live Active Leisure, Perth Common Good Fund, the management and staff at Bell’s Sports Centre, and the Badminton Scotland court officials and volunteers, without whom this event would not be possible.