Trinity College Dublin claimed the 2021-22 Student Sport Ireland / Badminton Ireland team league title on Tuesday March 1st as they won a brilliant final against Technological University of Dublin Tallaght Campus on a 3-1 score line.
Final’s day brought four teams to Baldoyle Badminton Centre where the semi finals pitted TU Dublin Tallaght against MTU Cork and TU Dublin City Campus against Trinity College. Both finalists advanced to the decider after 5-0 victories in their semi-finals with the TU Dublin Tallaght combination of David Walsh, Caoimhe McKeown, Muhamhed Zeshon, Qixun Yap and Leah Auld proving too strong for MTU Cork. It was a similar story in the other semi-final as Louie Lyons, Anastasiya Bogoslovskava, Ang Peng Nan, Sabrina Steinberga and Alex O’Connor powered past TU Dublin City Campus.
Trinity College Dublin and TU Dublin Tallaght Campus had met in the group stages of the competition and in that fixture, it was a 3-2 victory for Trinity College. With TU Dublin Tallaght missing one of their star players Kate Frost through injury they would have to push all the way in the final. Rohan Thool defeated Qixun Yap 2-0 in the opening men’s singles as Thool had arrived in on flight early that morning after competing in the Uganda Open last weekend for India. In the women’s singles a powerful performance from Anastasiya Bogoslovskava saw here put Trinity College 2-0 in front with a 21-7, 21-11 win over Caoimhe McKeown.
It was onto the men’s and women’s doubles matches and TU Dublin Tallaght knew nothing other than two wins would keep the match alive. The women’s doubles was a fantastic game and TU Dublin Tallaght gained a lifeline in the match as Caoimhe McKeown and Leah Auld were 13-21, 21-17, 21-19 winners to put the match at 2-1 in Trinity’s favour.
The action on the other court in the Men’s Doubles was equally as exciting as the first set went to TU Dublin 22-20 to David Walsh and Muhamhed Zeshon, however the Trinity College pairing of Louie Lyons and Ang Peng Nan, roared on by their teammates took the remaining two sets 21-13, 21-16 to secure the title for Trinity College Dublin.
The 3rd/4th place play off was won by TU Dublin City Campus as they got the better of MTU Cork Campus.
