CIRENCESTER College duo Rosie Postlewhite and Chloe Haywood struck gold at the National Association of Colleges’ Badminton finals.

They had to come through the West Midlands team trials to be selected to compete at the finals, which took place over three days at Nottingham University.

In the first stages of the competition, the duo played in a difficult group of round robin matches, losing the first match 2-3 to the South East but then winning the final three matches of the group against the North East, East and South West. As runners up in the group they booked themselves a place in the semi-finals against the East Midlands team, beating them 3-2.

In the finals Rosie,17, and Chloe,17, came up against the team that had beaten them in the first match, the South East. Chloe and Rosie, now feeling more confident after their series of wins, were victorious with a 3-2 win against the South East team.

After a tough weekend of matches, Rosie and Chloe were delighted with their gold medals, saying: “We were so disappointed with the loss on the very first day but didn’t let it deter us. Gaining gold medals has been a great achievement and a fantastic experience for us over 3 days of really tight competition.”

The A-level students had never played doubles together before meeting up in their enrichment activity, playing badminton. Having both played for about 10 years this has been an exceptional achievement for them. Both students plan to go to University next year.

Cirencester Sixth Form College has had a strong record in the national badminton championships over the last six years winning12 medals in total. The team were coached by former champion and College alumni, Andy Ferris.