Double glory at championships for table tennis star Lynda
Table tennis player Lynda Flaws retained her women’s singles title and added a triumph in the doubles at the Scottish National Championships in Glasgow at the weekend.
After comfortable wins in her group and in the singles quarter-final, Flaws found herself two games down against number one seed Corinna Whitaker in the semi-final – before fighting back to take the final three games. She then saw off Gillian Edwards in the final to reclaim the title.
“I’m delighted because in the semi-final I was 2-0 down, but I managed to compose myself and get back into it,” Flaws said. “Then I played really well in the final – I was chuffed with how it went.”
She and Whitaker teamed up to triumph 3-1 in the women’s doubles final, while Flaws was also runner up in the mixed doubles following a 3-0 loss to the number one seeds in the final.
Ninteen-year-old Flaws, who won the singles title for the first time in 2012, said it had been a tough day’s action at the Gorbals Leisure Centre. She took to the table for her first match at 10am on Saturday and only laid her bat down at 7pm after the mixed doubles final.
Flaws, who is studying in Glasgow, last year made her bow on the global scene with appearances at the World Team Championships and at the Europeans in October.
She is still hoping to be able to compete in next year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, but says the criteria for qualifying means it won’t be easy.
“The criteria is actually quite tough, so I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to manage, but that’s what I’m working towards,” she said.
“You have to be ranked in the top eight teams in the commonwealth to compete in the team event, then there’s also individual criteria – you’d have to be ranked in the top 190 in the world. The team [qualifying] is probably more realistic – if we qualify as a team we’ll probably be able to play individually as well.”
After some more Scottish tournaments and a grand prix in England in the next few weeks, she is hoping to be selected to take part in the 19th Commonwealth Table Tennis championship in Delhi from 5th-10th May.
