BADMINTON: Bunbury badminton player Louise Bradford enjoyed the spoils of many years of hard work as she became a triple state champion in the under 15s age group earlier this month.
Louise has often had to contest against state representative boys and has played locally against adults with vast years of experience.
All of this exposure to tough competition made her a formidable opponent to other state girls in the metropolitan competition held in Kingsway during the school holidays.
She kicked off her campaign with victory in the girls singles division before taking out the girls doubles event with an 11 year old partner from Perth.
She then faced her toughest challenge in the mixed doubles with partner Matthew Teo who took out the best-of-three final two games to one.
Coach Rob Italiano said he was thrilled with Louise’s performances and enjoyed his return to local coaching after coaching his own children to state level more than 20 years ago.
Louise’s father and club president Julien Bradford said he was thrilled with his daughter’s performance and was busy checking club records from previous decades to see if a state triple title had been achieved before.
As a lead up to the state junior championships Bunbury entered three junior teams into the 2014 Higgs Trophy event – a two day competition which saw Bunbury compete against Geraldton and Perth teams in under 13 and 15 events.
Bunbury twins Breanna and Madison Bail and Dane and Jye Senberg did an excellent job to finish fourth in a field of nine teams.
The division one team made up of Joshua Koomson, Danniele Garcia and Louise Bradford had a tougher task and finished with a bronze medal beating Geraldton.
For more information about junior badminton contact Julien Bradford on 0414 985 499.