European Games: Nhat Nguyen upbeat after badminton elimination

It was a mixed day for the Irish at the European Games, with progress in the canoe slalom balanced by the elimination of Olympian Nhat Nguyen from the badminton competition.

At the Kolna Sports Centre, Noel Hendrick and Samuel Curtis progressed to the semi-final of the men's K1 canoe slalom, as did team-mate Madison Corcoran in the women’s event.

In badminton, Nguyen was beaten by Olympic champion Victor Axelsen of Denmark in his men’s singles quarter-final.

Ireland’s mixed doubles pairing also lost their final group game to top seeds France, but had already qualified for tomorrow’s quarter-final.

Shooter Aoife Gormally scored 67 (out of a possible 75) in the first three of her qualification rounds in the women’s trap this morning, at the Wroclaw Shooting Centre. The Meath woman will have to have a very strong performance in her final two rounds tomorrow if she is to progress.

Nguyen had the unenviable task of playing the reigning Olympic and World champion Viktor Axelsen in his quarter-final encounter.

The 6ft 4in Dane controlled the court, not allowing Nguyen to gain any sort of stronghold on the game as he took a comfortable 2-0 victory.

Nguyen rallied on, failing to drop his head, and battled back in the second set gaining quite a few points throughout.

Despite being disappointed, he struck an upbeat tone when speaking afterwards: "There’s definitely a lot of things that I can learn. That’s my mindset. It has to be like that now. I don’t want to be crying about things."

Speaking about his performance in the tournament overall he added: "I don’t feel like I played my best. I played some good badminton and some not so good.

"I definitely feel like I’m coming into my stride now. In the last six to nine months my form hasn’t been