Following recent movements in personnel on the GB Badminton programme, GB Badminton is delighted to announce a number of exciting changes to the line up of doubles partnerships that reinforces the strength in Mixed Doubles.

With seven Mixed Doubles partnerships all vying for success, GB  are maintaining a long-standing and rich tradition in developing pairings capable of winning titles on the European and international circuits.

The new changes to the line-up, effective from January 2013, will see Chris Adcock, Marcus Ellis, Gabby White and Alyssa Lim taking new partners.

World silver medallist Chris Adcock (pictured) will be reunited with Gabby White.  Adcock and White, who are set to wed in the autumn of 2013, will renew an on-court partnership that started at a young age, with success on the junior circuit, and matured into a national title winning duo in February 2012.

The partnership of Adcock and White was shot into limelight when they won a silver medal at the World Junior Badminton Championships in 2007. The partnership also broke into the world’s top 20 at senior level in 2010.

White has already had success this season with Marcus Ellis with the pair winning the Yonex Belgian Open and taking the runners-up spot at the Yonex Dutch Open.  Ellis will now partner highly-rated young doubles specialist, Alyssa Lim.

Lim, 21, has won numerous national titles in Mixed and Women’s Doubles at junior level and is the latest junior star to make the step up to the GB programme.  This season, Lim has been gaining Mixed Doubles experience at senior level on the European circuit in partnership with Peter Mills. 

Peter Mills will put all his focus into his Men’s Doubles partnership with Chris Langridge.  Mills and Langridge are currently ranked 34th in the world on the back of victory at the Czech International in October and a first Grand Prix Gold final appearance at the Bitburger Open earlier this month.

Of the new partnerships, Jens Grill, GB Badminton Performance Director, said “We have enjoyed a very strong start to the new international circuit season with regard all of our doubles pairs.

“Some of the results and titles won have shown that there is some real potential within our pairings, especially in respect of Mixed Doubles where we continue to enjoy real strength in depth with some young aspiring partnerships complementing the more experienced players.

“With this good form as a positive backdrop, we have reviewed all options with the coaches and players and, through this fine tuning, we believe the new line up gives us a solid platform on which to establish world class mixed doubles partnerships and continue to build for Rio.”  

GB’s line-up of Mixed Doubles pairings, effective January 2013 is:

Chris Adcock (Nottinghamshire) & Gabby White (Yorkshire)
Andrew Ellis (Yorkshire) & Jenny Wallwork (Yorkshire)
Chris Langridge (Surrey) & Heather Olver (Sussex)
Marcus Ellis (Yorkshire) & Alyssa Lim (Buckinghamshire)
Ben Stawski(Warwickshire) & Lauren Smith (Cumbria)
Matthew Nottingham (Cheshire) & Alex Langley (Nottinghamshire)
Chris Coles (Avon) & Jessica Fletcher (Yorkshire)

Press release by Badminton England, Photo by BadmintonPhoto.