STANDING at just under five foot tall, you would expect playing badminton to be tricky for a girl who is actually shorter than the net itself. Apparently not so. For Laura Cousins, who is 19, and from Swanley Bar Lane in Little Heath, has just been crowne

STANDING at just under five foot tall, you would expect playing badminton to be tricky for a girl who is actually shorter than the net itself.

Apparently not so. For Laura Cousins, who is 19, and from Swanley Bar Lane in Little Heath, has just been crowned the Yonex National Under-19 doubles champion.

Her dad Roy said that her height had not really been a problem.

"Laura plays doubles mostly, which is a completely different game to singles. With doubles it's good if you have a mix."

The former Bishop's Hatfield Girl's School student has only teamed up with her playing partner Sarah Walker, from Essex, twice this year.

The teenager told the WHT that it was a "brilliant feeling to win".

England junior international Laura said: "It's what I have trained for all season. It was such a good feeling of achievement.

"We were seeded number one in the tournament, so on paper we should have won, but that is very different to actually doing it because there are lots of good pairs.

"It feels really good to actually be number one in the country in our age group."

Laura has previously won the U15 title and also reached the quarters in the ladies' singles and the semi-finals of the mixed doubles event this year partnering Herts colleague Victor Liew.

The successful duo of Cousins and Walker beat Alyssa Lim and Kate Robertshaw 22-20, 16-21, 21-17 at the tournament held at the National Badminton Centre in Milton Keynes.

But the Carlton and Ashaway sponsored teenager from Herts, who has been playing the game for 10 years, insisted that dreams of competing in the Olympics one day were still distant.

"The standard is so high but we will see how it goes."

Laura, who is a regular in the Herts county senior team, is currently at Bath University studying for a degree in sports performance.