This year’s Under 19 European Team Championships were held in Germering near Munich in Germany from 9-12 April. The Scotland Squad featured GIS athlete Mhairi Charlton (Aberdeen) supported by Chris Ferguson (ESIS), Kevin Moran (WSIS), Ian Jubb (ESIS) and Morgan McGuire (WSIS). They were accompanied by Academy lead coach Gerry Towler (who also coaches Mhairi Charlton) and Yvonne Ferguson.

This year’s team was all out to follow up on last year’s excellent success when that squad finished a very credible 6th position. This time Scotland were seeded (10) and in arguably the hardest group with Germany (2), Netherlands (7) and Ireland (15) providing some stern challenges. The players, as always, gave of their best and were able to produce surprise after surprise as they progressed through the tournament.

Despite Mhairi losing out closely to her Dutch opponent victory against Netherlands in the first game was the first upset of the tournament and a subsequent expected defeat from Germany was followed up with a hard fought win against Ireland, with Mhairi having a resounding 3-0 win. This helped the Scots progress through from the group stages.

In the quarter finals Scotland then faced the No1 seeds England and although the match was lost the coaching staff had decided to rest some players with a view to competing for the more realistic 5-8 places. Mhairi reserved her best performance the first match against Belgium where her 11-6, 11-6, 11-6 win secured a play off with the Czech Republic for 5th and 6th place. By the time Mhairi played the final match of the tie against the Czech team her team-mates had secured victory by winning the first two matches ensuring that the Scots secured a shock 5th position and enjoyed their best finish for 21 years.

(Report courtesy of Gerry Towler)