Sophie Chiang impresses on England duty

Young star reaches semi-finals in France

Sophie Chiang represented England against some of the best young prospects in Europe at the EuroMini Championships in France.

The annual event in Schiltigheim attracts scores of top players in the 12 and 13-year-old brackets and Chiang, a student at The Perse School, made a superb start as she went through the first two qualifying stages unbeaten, seeing off opponents from Slovakia, Belarus and the host nation.

In the third stage, she was narrowly beaten in her two matches, losing 3-2 (8-11, 12-10, 13-11, 10-12, 11-4) to Miriam Carnovale of Italy and 3-2 (11-7, 11-8, 7-11, 2-11, 11-8) to Hungary’s Dalma Letanoczki.

It put 12-year-old Chiang into the consolation event and she continued her good form to beat rivals from Lithuania, France and Slovakia to reach the semi-finals.

Her run was ended in three straight games by Michaela Dosedelova of the Czech Republic and one more defeat, 3-2 to Louise Saguet of France, meant she had to settle for fourth place.