|You are in: Badminton|
Monday, 29 July, 2002, 14:44 GMT 15:44 UK
England ease into final
England needed only 80 minutes to see off Scotland and reach the mixed team final on Monday.
The top seeds will face Singapore in the final after the Asians saw off the challenge of New Zealand.
World number 19 Tracey Hallam beat Scots teenager Susan Hughes 7-3 8-6 7-2 in just under half an hour in the opening women's singles.
But the game turned on two debatable line calls and the Scot felt she suffered because she was playing an English opponent.
"I thought both calls were wrong but what can you do, we are in England after all," said Hughes.
Hallam insisted that the gold medal is far from certain, despite the fact that England will be strong favourites in the final.
"We all know we did the hard work against Malaysia, but the job is not done yet," said Hallum.
"We have to maintain our focus because after coming so far it would be silly to throw it away now."
Graham Simpson did manage to take a game for Scotland in the second singles, but Colin Haughton proved too strong and ran out a 7-1 4-7 7-0 7-1 winner.
The Englishman remains unhappy with his form, however.
"I am struggling," he admitted. "There is added pressure because the tournament is so close to home and I am handling it in quite a negative way."
There were no such problems for Olympic bronze medalist Jo Goode and Gail Emms, who teamed up to beat Yuan Wemyss and Sandra Watt 7-4 7-2 7-5 and wrap up the tie.
In the second semi-final, Singapore got the better of New Zealand thanks to a pair of wins for Ronald Susilo.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites
Other top Badminton stories:
Links to more Badminton stories are at the foot of the page.
|E-mail this story to a friend|
Links to more Badminton stories