Badminton: Scots name squads for Amsterdam

Scotland have named their squads for this month’s European Men’s and Women’s Team Championships in Amsterdam.

The women’s team for the 14-19 February event includes newly-crowned national champion Kirsty Gilmour.

Scotland’s women’s team can also draw on the experience of Susan Egelstaff, who will be adding to her 87 international caps, and doubles specialists Jillie Cooper and Imogen Bankier. The line-up is completed by Linda Sloan and Rita Yuan Gao.

It means Scotland will be able to field a strong team when they take on England in their opening contest of this qualifying event for the Uber Cup Finals in Wuhan, China, in May.

The top three teams qualify and Scotland, who topped their group before losing to Russia in the quarter-finals two years ago in Warsaw, can go to Amsterdam full of confidence.

In the men’s Thomas Cup qualifier, Kieran Merrilees, Calum Menzies and Gordon Hoggan will tackle the singles while Martin Campbell, Angus Gilmour, Jamie Neill, Keith Turnbull and Paul van Rietvelde are the doubles players in the squad. They play Sweden in their first match.