Badminton: Bankier and Adcock setting sights on Olympics after Glasgow victory

Glasgow's Imogen Bankier made a major breakthrough three years ago when she won the Bank of Scotland Scottish International mixed doubles title with Robert Blair. Her second victory yesterday with England's Chris Adcock suggests she has found the partner that could take her to the London 2012 Olympics.

In the shortest of the five finals at the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow, Bankier and Adcock, the No 2 seeds, swept aside the German top seeds, Till Zander and Gitte Koehler, by an impressive 21-10 21-12 scoreline. The brief encounter lasted just 20 minutes.

Bankier and Adcock first showed they had potential when they reached the semi-finals of the Bitburger Open in Germany on their first outing together in September and, after just a few weeks of training, both agreed that they are gelling nicely.

"It's a new partnership and we're pleased with the whole tournament," said 23-year-old Bankier, who reached the world's top ten with Blair. "I really do hope we now become a settled partnership and we're all set for the start of the Olympic qualification in May.

"All we need is some more practice and more tournaments so we can improve our ranking and get into the big events. I won this title three years ago so it's great to win it again.

"Now we can look forward to the Irish International and the Italian Open before taking a Christmas break. Then, hopefully, the plan is to go to the Super Series events in Malaysia and Korea."

Elsewhere, there was disappointment for the home hopefuls, although Susan Egelstaff could take some consolation from the fact that her semi-final conqueror, Tatyana Bibik, completed a giant-killing weekend by beating the No 1 seed, Liz Cann, in the final.

Egelstaff was the defending champion and No 2 seed but was rather easily dismissed by the athletic Russian and went out 15-21 12-21 in just 36 minutes.

"Tatyana is quick and a great athlete and that made it very hard," said a disappointed Egelstaff, who won the title for a first time last year. "I felt I played okay and didn't just hand it to her. But I did make too many mistakes."

In the final Bibik again showed her athleticism and determination as she won a close first game 25-23 against the 2008 champion before taking the second by a slightly easier 21-12 margin.

Bankier was the only Scot to make the finals. In the men's singles, Kieran Merrilees, the No 10 seed, went out in the quarter-finals in a tight three-end match against Dymtro Zavadsky.The Ukranian won the final six points to squeeze through 13-21 21-10 21-17

Linda Sloan was another Scot in her first ever singles quarter-final, and she went out in straight games to Cann, while Emma Mason and Jillie Cooper lost 21-17 21-17 to the eventual winners, England's Gabby White and Jenny Wallwork, in the women's doubles.

In the men's doubles, the second seeded Martin Campbell and Angus Gilmour, lost in straight games to Blair and Longniddry 19-year-old Paul van Rietvelde.

But Blair and van Rietvelde then lost the semi-final to Adcock and Andy Ellis.

India's Anand Pawar, the No 1 seed, claimed the men's singles title with a 21-9 21-10 win over Finland's Ville Lange while the Marcus Ellis and Peter Mills won an all-English men's doubles final by winning the only three-set match 21-19 11-21 21-15 against Adcock and Andy Ellis.