McVeigh Takes World Para Title

Niall McVeigh put in an outstanding performance to win the Para Badminton World Championships Men's singles title SS6 (Short Stature) class in Dortmund (5th-10th Nov).

The top seed for the tournament and current World & European Champion showed his trademark passion and determination to successfully defend the title he won in 2009 defeating Andrew Martin (Eng) 21- 18, 21-14 in the final.

Badminton Ireland coach Andrew Stewart commented " It was an outstanding performance from Niall. We had a great training block coming off his win at the World Dwarf Games in August up to the World Championships and it showed in his performance particularly in the semi-final and final. His playing level was extremely high in those 2 matches. I'm so proud of him!"

There were other medals at the Championships from Irish players. Emma Farnham who took bronze in the SS6 ladies doubles and another bronze in the SS6 class mixed doubles partnering Luke Irvine. Luke teamed up with Andrew Moorcroft for the men's doubles narrowly missing out on a semi-final spot losing their quarter-final match in 3 games.

There were other notable performances from Michael Smith and Chris Stewart in the WH1 (Wheel Chair 1) class reaching the quarter finals of the men's doubles with Chris also reaching the quarter finals of the men's singles in the WH1 Class. Stephen Halpin reached the quarter finals of the men's singles in the SL4 class.