A TALENTED badminton player has won a prestigious tournament for the second consecutive time.

Basia Grodynska won the women’s singles trophy at the East of Scotland Badminton Championship in 2020, with last year’s event being cancelled, and was back on the court at the Oriam Sports Centre last month.

The 22-year-old defeated Katrina Chan (21-17, 21-13) and Sophie Ford (21-15, 21-18), both from Glasgow, in the quarter-finals and semi-finals.

That set up a final against Stirling’s Abbie Brooks. The match was a highly competitive battle between two skilled and athletic players and, although Grodynska lost the first set 18-21, she fought back to win the second and third sets 21-15 and 21-18.

The triumph was Grodynska’s fourth Scottish senior singles title, the East of Scotland wins coming either side of the year-long suspension of domestic tournaments caused by coronavirus.

The Longniddry athlete said: “I’m happy to have won, especially considering Covid hit me hard a few months ago, right before the National Championships, and I didn’t have the strength to get out of bed for several days.

“It has been a difficult period trying to recover my fitness since then but I’m feeling much better now!

“Of course, it’s great to win a tournament at ‘home’ and I enjoyed the mental and physical challenge of coming through a tough three sets against Abbie.”

Her next tournament is likely to be the Luxembourg Open, an International Series event, this month.