Huge congratulations to Sian Kelly (LHS 2019), who earlier this month secured the title of National Champion in the Women’s Doubles with her doubles partner, Lisa Curtin, at the National Cycling Centre in Manchester. They beat the reigning champions and top seeded pair in the final, 21-13,21-17. We caught up with Sian, finding out more about this fantastic success:
- How much training and preparation went into reaching this stage of the competition? I train around 5 hours per day at the National centre in Milton Keynes. A lot of preparation with my partner over our time playing together helped us feel in great flow in this competition.
- How long have you and Lisa been playing together? I’ve been playing with Lisa since May 2025, so not a super long time but we naturally play really well together and get on well, which has helped us a lot in our partnership and helped us to get results quickly!
- Was there a moment in the final where you knew the title was within reach? There wasn’t a moment where we knew we had the final in the bag until the last point was won. We were playing against our teammates and fellow national team players who are really strong players, so it was very high intensity and in situations like that anything can happen! We started really well in the match, and held on to our level throughout which put pressure onto our opponents.
- How does it feel to be National Champions? It feels amazing to be national champions! It’s always been a goal of mine to win this title, and to have achieved that makes all the hours of hard work day in day out feel all the more worth it! Having my parents there on the day in the stand watching as well was a really special feeling, they’ve supported me endlessly to get to this point.
- What’s next for you after winning this title? I have some more international competitions left this season, including tournaments in Germany and Poland. And with some good results will hopefully qualify for European Championships in April!
Alan Spink Action Photography
You can hear more about Sian’s badminton journey and time at LHS here.
