Ireland’s Chloe Magee competed at the weekend in the Bulgarian Challenger Event in Sofia, Bulgaria; looking to continue her Olympic qualification goals.
First up for Chloe on Friday morning was Spanish No2 and European Junior silver medallist Beatriz Corrales. A difficult first round tie was confirmed when the Spaniard won the first set 17-21. Chloe however took the match; upping a gear after the first set and demonstrating her improved tactical and physical ability taking the next two sets 21-9, and 21-14. A comfortable win in the end for Chloe.
The second round Friday evening was against Caroline Hoim, Estonian No1. However due to an injury picked up in the warm up the Estonian was forced to withdraw.
That left Chloe with a Quarter final match against Turkish No1 Neslihan Yigit on Saturday morning and despite a tremendous effort by Chloe she was defeated 20-22, 24-26 in two gruelling forty five minute sets.
The Turkish girl went on to defeat the second seed Griga from Ukraine in two straight sets in the semi-final and plays the Bulgarian No1 Zichiri in the final Sunday.
Badminton Ireland Chief Executive Richard Vaughan commented “Chloe has again played well and was just a few points short of defeating the Turkish girl who looks as if she will take the Bulgarian title. It is a start of a busy few weeks for Chloe with the Dutch Open next week and events in Germany, Norway and Ireland coming up, so it is a very promising sign of better things to come Chloe has also been working very closely with the Irish Institute of Sport in recent months and her fitness test results clearly indicate physical improvements which are only going to benefit her on court game.”
