JERSEY’S rising badminton superstar, Rory Le Masurier, has earned selection for the England U13 squad for November’s Swedish Youth Games.
Picked as one of four boys and four girls, the Victoria College student ended his season in outstanding form and has been recognised for his achievements.
The Youth Games is held as a team event, meaning the young star is set to compete in his two favoured events, doubles and mixed doubles, where he has excelled of late.
Most recently, Le Masurier competed in Scotland at the U13 Glasgow Yonex Junior Championships, a necessary event for his selection case.
As he does not regularly play in the Scottish circuit, being separate from Badminton England, he was not seeded going into the competition.
The singles event was a straight knockout from the off. However, the canny left-hander negotiated his way through the opening two rounds with little fuss.
Things heated up for the Islander in the quarter-finals, where he met the tournament’s second seed.
The youngster rose to the occasion and produced a superb performance to progress to the semis in straight sets, 21-10, 21-6.
Returning the following day, nerves had begun to settle in.
However, what ensued was a very mature and composed performance against a more experienced opponent.
Pressing him into unforced errors, Le Masurier took the win, again in straight sets, 21-15, 21-17, to progress to the final.
There was precious rest before the final, but the Caesarean was fired up again, especially as the crowd were supporting his Scottish opponent.
He was facing the number one seed and the difference in play was notable.
His opponent was fast and accurate and, although the Jerseyman took an initial early lead, they were matching each other point for point for most of the first game.
Le Masurier just managed to pull away, however, winning the first set 21-18.
It was a nail-biting second set, where, at 20-14, Le Masurier found himself with six match points.
He took a few risky shots, but finally managed to clinch victory with a killer smash to take the match and a phenomenal gold medal, 21-18, 21-17.
He also took part in the doubles with his partner, Kavin Ramen, who he has partnered once before.
Le Masurier was a lot more confident about doubles and easily found his stride.
The pair made it through the group stages, quarter-final and semi-final comfortably, but had a much harder fight in the final, up against his singles opponent again, who up to this point was unbeaten in doubles for the year.
The game was fast and extremely tight.
Le Masurier and Ramen took the first set 21-19 and were fighting hard to win the second, but their opponents fought back to win it 19-21.
The third set was another thrilling game, where the Islanders looked determined to take the win.
In the last few points they pulled away and, after a run of insane smashes, took the gold again, 21-15.
The second day of the tournament was also the mixed doubles event.
Keen to play, Le Masurier was partnered with a Anvita Awasthi.
Played in a round robin, the duo only dropped one match to the eventual winners to take silver, capping off an outstanding personal tournament from the future Jersey star.
