Mary Wilson, the only competitor from Scotland, came home with three medals from the 1st Fazza Dubai Para-Badminton International held last week.
Competing in all three events, Mary had an excellent run getting out of her group in all three events.
In the singles playing in a joint SL4/SU5 event Mary successfully came out top of her group with three straight forward wins, setting her up for a quarter final clash against Australias Caitlin Dransfeild. In a 2 set battle Mary came up victorious with a 21-17, 21-17 win securing her place in the semi final and guaranteeing her a medal. She had to settle with bronze though after falling to Turkish SU5 1st seed Zehar Baglar, 21-11, 21-13.
Her singles contest was far from over though due to playing up a class and being one of the highest placed SL4 athletes Mary was then in contest to play for Silver and Bronze in the SL4 singles class with her opponent being Chiranjita Bharali from India. This was no easy contest but Mary came out with the Silver Medal with a 21-18, 21-17 win.
In the Womens doubles, playing with Frances Veronique Braud, Mary was to get her third and last medal of this event after beating the 1st seeds Khadija Khamuka and Elizabeth Mwesigwa from Uganda in their group but losing out to eventual winners Faustine Noel and Leani Ratri Oktila. Having placed second in their group they were then to meet Zehra Baglar and Manasi Joshi in the semi-final. After a 3 set battle the Turkish/ Indian pair were too strong and so Mary had to settle with a Bronze with a score line of 13-21, 21-16, 11-21.
Lastly in the mixed doubles playing with Indonesia’s Fredy Setiawan, the pair were able to get out of the group stages meeting 3/4 seeds in the quarter finals losing out in an incredible match with a score line of 18-21, 24-26 versus Ilker Tuzcu and Manasi Joshi.
Dubai hosted an excellent tournament for their first international and we hope there will be many more to come.