Two medals for Mackay at European Senior Championships
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Caithness badminton ace Mark Mackay won two medals at the European Senior Championships in Slovenia.
A silver and a bronze add to the collection of international silverware he has secured on his travels on the senior circuit.
The long-time county number one battled through a gruelling schedule in the 45-50 age category to feature in the final of the singles and the semi-final of the mixed doubles.
The week-long competition in Ljubljana, which ended on Saturday, involved more than 1000 players aged from 35 to 70-plus.
Mackay, seeded 3/4 in the singles, had a first-round bye before knocking out Slovakian, French and Lithuanian opponents.
He then faced Englishman Carl Jennings in the last eight.
After the Scot comfortably won the first set 21-12, Jennings looked certain to take the tie to a decider by racing into a 17-8 lead. But Mackay proceeded to win 10 straight points before prevailing 21-19.
He then featured in a ding-dong battle with Sweden's Fredrik Du Hane in his semi.
After taking the first set 21-16, he let a 11-7 lead slip as a run of unforced errors saw him concede the second 21-18.
He never trailed in the decider, though his opponent pushed him all the way before going down 21-17.
Saturday's final saw Mackay up against the number one seed Thorsten Hukriede, a junior national champion whose club FC Langenfeld won the German top division in 2004.
After losing the first set 21-10, Mackay started the second brightly and was on terms at the halfway point but fell away in the later stages as Hukriede prevailed 21-15.
Earlier, the 47-year-old's hopes of justifying top seeding in the men's doubles were dashed after his Danish partner had to withdraw through injury.
Mackay and Johnny Hast Hansen had a first-round bye before recording straight-sets victories over Austrian and Latvian opponents.
Their scheduled last-eight clash on Thursday was, however, spiked after Hansen succumbed to a leg injury – giving their Danish/Norwegian opponents a walkover.
Mackay and mixed doubles partner Lynne Swan did not drop a set in accounting for Bulgarian/Romanian, Spanish and German combos in the opening rounds.
The 5/8 seeds then made sure of a medal after recovering from misfiring starts in both sets of their quarter-final to defeat Swan's English compatriots Daniel Bates and Kate Ward 21-15, 21-17.
Their semi was a tense affair as they recovered from losing the opener 21-19 to take the second 21-19.
It was equally tight in the decider before the English pair pulled away to win 21-14. Bates and Ward went on to claim the title.
Mackay finished with a record of 12 wins and two defeats, with his medals adding to the silver and three bronze medals he had already won at European and World Senior Championships.
Mackay, who farms at Scarfskerry, was accompanied on the trip by his wife Shona and their two young daughters.
