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WSIS - Merrilees prepares to take on the world
Kieran Merrilees played his last junior event in Scotland with a clean sweep of national titles in Sunday's under 19 event, beating Kenny Young (Lanark) 21-7 21-10 in the singles, then combining with Longniddry's Paul van Rietvelde to win the doubles.
But before the 18 year old can reflect fully on his many achievements since starting the game a remarkably recent five years ago, he will face the biggest challenge of his career, the Junior World Championships in New Zealand which he heads to later this week.
Originally a tennis player, Merrilees switched allegiances to badminton as a 12 year old but adjusted quickly to the lightening fast game. Last autumn he won the Swiss, Croatian and Czech Republic Junior Opens, moving up to the European under 19 singles spot in the process.
This January he was the sole Scottish badminton representative in the Youth Olympic Festival in Sydney, an achievement which saw him recognised as having the potential to compete in a future Olympics. In development terms, becoming a full time competitor this summer was a major turning point.
I've got so much more time to train, said Merrilees, a member of Badminton Scotland's Junior High Performance Squad, coached by Diana Koleva at Scotstoun's National Academy, and a West of Scotland Institute of Sport supported athlete.
When I was at school I was only training two hours a day six days a week, but now I've upped it to twice a day, six times a week. I know what I need to work on and being full time allows me to do it and with far more one to one coaching.
I've been working a lot on my fitness. Every day I do Strength & Conditioning training with the West Institute, which has have made a big difference.
Dividends of full time efforts included winning through the qualifying of last month's Belgium Open, only his second ever senior event, and a fortnight later, against top English and Danish juniors, capturing the Wimbledon Open.
In Belgium that was probably the best I'd ever played, he recalls. To qualify for the main draw I had to beat an Indonesian, a German and one of the top French boys, who was a senior. In the main draw I gave good account against a top Swede so I was happy with the week.
Both events were played to a back drop of a shortage of equipment. Earlier in the summer, returning from a tournament in Germany, his airline managed to lose his entire luggage.
For a while I had just one racket and I had to borrow a pair of shoes, he said. My sponsors, Yonex helped me out with rackets but I had to start again and buy new stuff. My luggage just turned up the other day a good few months ago after it had been lost.
Another major challenge, one involving the families and friends of the team of 4 athletes heading to China to train and then on to the Worlds, has been fundraising to pay for the trip. The trip is self-funded so the summer has been one long fund raising campaign of car boot sales and quiz nights. They are at last closing in on the target of raising £6,000.
They've been working really hard getting up every morning early on the weekends, said Kieran. I went one morning to help at the car boot sale but it makes more sense for me to spend the time training.
It will all be worth it. The event is another opportunity for recognition and a stepping stone for Kieran's ultimate aims of London 2012 Olympics and the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
I've not played in a Worlds before, it will be difficult but I'm looking forward to it, said Kieran who will have a four day training camp in Shanghai, China on the way to the World Championships.
I hope get a seeding because I'm ranked No.1 in Europe and a seeding means I'll avoid the top players in the early rounds.
I've played against the two best boys my age at the Youth Olympics so I know what to expect from them and I beat one of the top Malaysian boys at the Dutch Junior Open. I'm hoping to get a decent draw.
Originally a tennis player, Merrilees switched allegiances to badminton as a 12 year old but adjusted quickly to the lightening fast game. Last autumn he won the Swiss, Croatian and Czech Republic Junior Opens, moving up to the European under 19 singles spot in the process.
This January he was the sole Scottish badminton representative in the Youth Olympic Festival in Sydney, an achievement which saw him recognised as having the potential to compete in a future Olympics. In development terms, becoming a full time competitor this summer was a major turning point.
I've got so much more time to train, said Merrilees, a member of Badminton Scotland's Junior High Performance Squad, coached by Diana Koleva at Scotstoun's National Academy, and a West of Scotland Institute of Sport supported athlete.
When I was at school I was only training two hours a day six days a week, but now I've upped it to twice a day, six times a week. I know what I need to work on and being full time allows me to do it and with far more one to one coaching.
I've been working a lot on my fitness. Every day I do Strength & Conditioning training with the West Institute, which has have made a big difference.
Dividends of full time efforts included winning through the qualifying of last month's Belgium Open, only his second ever senior event, and a fortnight later, against top English and Danish juniors, capturing the Wimbledon Open.
In Belgium that was probably the best I'd ever played, he recalls. To qualify for the main draw I had to beat an Indonesian, a German and one of the top French boys, who was a senior. In the main draw I gave good account against a top Swede so I was happy with the week.
Both events were played to a back drop of a shortage of equipment. Earlier in the summer, returning from a tournament in Germany, his airline managed to lose his entire luggage.
For a while I had just one racket and I had to borrow a pair of shoes, he said. My sponsors, Yonex helped me out with rackets but I had to start again and buy new stuff. My luggage just turned up the other day a good few months ago after it had been lost.
Another major challenge, one involving the families and friends of the team of 4 athletes heading to China to train and then on to the Worlds, has been fundraising to pay for the trip. The trip is self-funded so the summer has been one long fund raising campaign of car boot sales and quiz nights. They are at last closing in on the target of raising £6,000.
They've been working really hard getting up every morning early on the weekends, said Kieran. I went one morning to help at the car boot sale but it makes more sense for me to spend the time training.
It will all be worth it. The event is another opportunity for recognition and a stepping stone for Kieran's ultimate aims of London 2012 Olympics and the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
I've not played in a Worlds before, it will be difficult but I'm looking forward to it, said Kieran who will have a four day training camp in Shanghai, China on the way to the World Championships.
I hope get a seeding because I'm ranked No.1 in Europe and a seeding means I'll avoid the top players in the early rounds.
I've played against the two best boys my age at the Youth Olympics so I know what to expect from them and I beat one of the top Malaysian boys at the Dutch Junior Open. I'm hoping to get a decent draw.