Chloe and Sam Magee have spoken of their immense pride at winning Ireland’s first ever medal at the European Badminton Championships.
Although the Raphoe brother and sister lost today in their semi-final to Joachim Fischer Nielsen and Christinna Pedersen of Denmark, yesterday’s win over Poland’s Robert Mateusiak and Nadiezda Zieba means they’ll be on the podium at tomorrow’s medal ceremony after claiming a bronze.
“We fought so hard all week. Our fighting spirit got us there,” Sam Magee said.
“It’s good to show that we can do it now. We’ll be very proud and happy that we could achieve it.”
For three-time Olympian Chloe, it was the fulfilment of a lifetime’s ambition, having revealed that she wrote as a young girl: ‘I want to win a European medal’.
Chloe said: “We wanted to take the opportunity to play a world class pair and see where we are. We lost our structure a lot, but there was a lot of mental energy that went into yesterday. We tried our best, but they were a lot better.
“It feels fantastic. Ireland gets behind their players and you feel Ireland getting behind you.”
Watch their interview, courtesy of Badminton Europe, below …