DONNA KELLOGG has been named No 1 seed in the women’s doubles at the English National Badminton Championships as she aims to lift the title with a third different partner in the last three Championships.
The Derbyshire star, who won four of her six titles with Gail Emms, retained the crown last year with Commonwealth singles champion Tracey Hallam.
But when the English Nationals get under way at the Velodrome in Manchester’s SportCity on January 30, she will be defending her title with Hertfordshire’s Suzanne Rayappan. The young Yorkshire pair of Jenny Wallwork and Gabby White are seeded to meet Kellogg and Rayappan in the final on Sunday February 1.
Kellogg, who is chasing a seventh women’s doubles title in total since her first with Joanne Goode in 1998, is also bidding for her fifth mixed doubles title - and her third in a row with Anthony Clark. They are top seeds in the mixed ahead of Clark’s friend and Nottinghamshire team-mate Nathan Robertson, who is now partnering Wallwork following the retirement of Emms after the Beijing Olympics.
Clark and Robertson, semi-finalists at this month’s Malaysian Open, are also top seeds in the men’s doubles where the defending champions are bidding for a fifth title together. Clark is going for an eighth title in a row. Former champion Robert Blair (Leics) and Chris Adcock (Notts) are second seeds.
Middlesex’s 2008 champion Rajiv Ouseph is top seed in the men’s singles ahead of Avon’s Carl Baxter while in the women’s singles Elizabeth Cann, who won last year for Middlesex, is back representing Jersey and is the title favourite as she bids for a fourth singles crown.
Three-times runner-up Jill Pittard (Warwickshire) is second seed with Cheshire’s Helen Davies, who has just been named in the Team England squad for the European Team Championship at Echo Arena Liverpool from February 10-15, the third seed.
This is the sixth English National Badminton Championships to be staged at the Velodrome and a record £12,000 prize fund is on offer as a total of 149 players (97 men and 52 women) from as far away as Northumberland, Guernsey and Jersey have entered.The English National Championships are being staged at the Velodrome thanks to the special partnership between BADMINTON England, Manchester City Council, Carlton, badminton retailers www.sportsdiscount.com and specialist building validation company Imperial Consultants, with invaluable support from the Manchester Evening News.
Cllr Mike Amesbury, Manchester City Council's Executive Member for Culture and Leisure, said: "We are very pleased to welcome back the English National Badminton Championships to Manchester in 2009 as part of our exciting calendar of sporting events and are looking forward to seeing the high level of sports competition that the players bring to the city.”
Seedings
Men’s singles:
1 Rajiv Ouseph (Middlesex)
2 Carl Baxter (Avon)
3 Harry Wright (Lancashire)
4 Ben Beckman (Surrey)
5 Mark Constable (Jersey)
6 Toby Honey (Surrey)
7 Neil White (Nottinghamshire)
8 Jamie Bonsels (Yorkshire)
Women's singles:
1 Elizabeth Cann (Jersey)
2 Jill Pittard (Wariwckshire)
3 Helen Davies (Cheshire)
4 Sarah Walker (Essex)
Men’s doubles:
1 Nathan Robertson & Anthony Clark (Nottinghamshire)
2 Robert Blair (Leics) & Chris Adcock (Nottinghamshire)
3 Richard Eidestedt (Bucks) & Andrew Ellis (Yorkshire)
4 Chris Langridge (Surrey) & David Lindley (Nottinghamshire)
Women’s doubles:
1 Donna Kellogg (Derbyshire) & Suzanne Rayappan (Herts)
2 Jenny Wallwork & Gabby White (Yorkshire)
3 Mariana Agathangelou (Avon) & Sarah Bok (Yorkshire)
4 Sarah Hardaker (Middlesex) & Jo Nicholas (Bedfordshire)
Mixed doubles:
1 Anthony Clark (Nottinghamshire) & Donna Kellogg (Derbyshire)
2 Nathan Robertson (Nottinghamshire) & Jenny Wallwork (Yorkshire)
3 David Lindley (Nottinghamshire) & Suzanne Rayappan (Hertfordshire)
4 Chris Adcock (Nottinghamshire) & Gabby White (Yorkshire)
