Scotland joy as Oliver strikes gold

Published on 12/06/2012 00:00

SCOTLAND’S Alan Oliver was as good as gold at the European Parabadminton Championships in Dortmund at the weekend.

The world silver medallist from Alloa took first place in the Standing Lower Class 3 and then scooped a bronze medal with Inverness player Steven Moodie in the men’s doubles lower class 4. The bronze made up in part for defending champion Moodie’s disappointment at surrendering his Standing SL 4 class title after going out to England’s Bruno Forbes in the quarter-finals.

Scotland picked up a second bronze when Niall Jarvie teamed up with England’s Mevan Gingh Dhesi in the Standing Lower Class 3.

But Sunday’s finals day belonged to Oliver. Having won both his group matches to reach the knockout stages, he toppled team-mate Jarvie in the last eight before knocking out Spanish joint third seed Simon Cruz Mondejar in the semi-finals before taking a closely-contested final against the other joint third seed, Daniel Lee of England, 21-17, 21-19.

In the doubles, Oliver and Moodie were third seeds and came through their group with two wins. But, in the semi-finals, they lost to Peter Schnitzler and Katrin Siebert of Germany and had to settle for bronze.

Scotland coach Kaity Hall said: “Alan’s final was almost too difficult to watch, let alone coach. It was just so brilliant for Alan and the team.”