AFTER a late call-up to the England Under-19 squad, 15-year-old Mariana Agathangelou returned from the national championships with a gold medal from the doubles competition.
The call-up followed her success in the Under-17 championships a couple of weeks ago, when she won silver in the singles and bronze in the doubles.In the Under-19 championships she reached the doubles finals with partner Rachel Howard (No 9 in the senior rankings whose regular Under-19 partner had withdrawn due to injury), despite the fact that they had never played together.They gelled well, beating No 2 seeds Jenny Wallwork and Heather Olver 15-11, 15-10 in the semi-finals to go through to meet the top seeds, Caroline Westley and Sarah Bok.
They lost the first set 15-10 but came back strongly to win the second 15-11.
In the third the top seeds raced to a 13-4 lead but the new twosome fought back hard to win 17-15, an excellent result for the Jersey girl in her first outing at senior level.She also reached the quarter-finals of the mixed doubles, playing with Ed Foster, the pair going out of that competition after they won the first set 15-10 but lost the next two 15-12, 15-10 to the No 1 seeds.In the singles, which were played first, Mariana found herself up against Jenny Wallwork, the Under-17 No 1 seed.
Despite a hard-fought match, the Jersey girl lost 11-9, 11-7.Her mother, Chantal, said that Mariana had been very nervous before the competition.’She took a little while to settle but once she did she played extremely well,’ she said.
‘A gold medal in her first major senior championship is a real achievement.’She is staying at Bath University for the rest of the week for training with Peter Bush, the England Under-17 coach.
Then she is off to Leicester for an élite training camp - she has been invited to go with the top seven girls and top seven boys - and on Saturday they will take part in a senior satellite tournament before she returns.’
Article posted on 23rd February, 2004 - 12.00am
Most Commented: