Holly Smith insists she left the Australian Youth Olympic Festival with her head held high despite failing to a claim a medal Down Under.
Smith was part of the British squad that narrowly missed out on a medal in the badminton mixed team event, finishing fourth, prior to her individual campaign.
The 18-year-old joined Tom Wolfenden in the mixed doubles but lost in the quarter-finals before teaming up with Chloe Birch in the women’s doubles.
They faced Chinese Taipei in the bronze-medal match however Smith and Birch were defeated in straight sets for fourth position again.
However Smith remained upbeat about her Festival experience, adamant that simply competing will stand her in good stead moving forward.
“Although I didn’t win a medal at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival I think the trip was still really useful in terms of experience,” said Smith.
“I thought my mixed doubles went quite well. We had quite a hard draw and I think we played very well against the Chinese as they are the best nation in the world.
“And my women’s doubles with Chloe also went quite well and we played well to get where we did but we didn’t play as well as we could have in the final game, which was a bit frustrating.
“But I am proud of how I performed overall and I have learnt a lot of new things about my game and what I need to improve on to get better.
“I have the English National Championships coming up so I will be looking to put it all into practice there.”
© Sportsbeat 2013