Badminton: Top British pairs go head to head

Britain’s two top mixed doubles pairs will face each other in the quarter-finals at the European Championships in Sweden after third-round victories yesterday.

Fourth seeds Chris Adcock and Imogen Bankier, of Glasgow, made a successful entry to the tournament in Karslkrona after a bye and a walkover with a 21-15, 21-6 win over Finland’s Anton Kaisti and Jenny Nystrom.

The Anglo-Scottish duo are on course to represent Britain at the London Olympics at the expense of Nathan Robertson and Jenny Wallwork, but their fierce rivals could make a point when they play them tomorrow.

Sixth seeds Robertson and Wallwork were in action twice in the day, following up defeat of Aleksei Konakh and Alesia Zaitsava, of Belarus, to reach the last eight by disposing of Germany’s Peter Kaesbauer and Johanna Goliszewski 21-18, 15-21, 21-10.

Adcock was also in action in the men’s doubles with Andrew Ellis and the sixth seeds made progress with a 21-9, 21-16 win over Vitaly Konov and Dmytro Zavadsky of Ukraine.

Mariana Agathangelou and Heather Olver maintained interest in the women’s doubles by beating Samantha Barning and Ilse Vaessen of Holland 21-14, 21-9.

Britain’s other remaining representative is top men’s singles hope Rajiv Ouseph, seeded six, who beat Yuhan Tan of Belgium 21-7, 21-14 after earlier knocking out Zavadsky.