Rachel Howards Blog

INTERVIEW WITH RACHEL

2011-01-26T09:22:00.000-08:00

Kings College London interview Englands Number 2 ladies singles player:
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/campuslife/student/news/index.aspx

Rachel Howard - Ranked Number 2!

2010-10-28T07:52:00.001-07:00

Ashaway's Rachel Howard is now England's No. 2 ranked ladies singles player! After 2 seasons battling against injuries and working hard to regain match fitness Rachel is now well and truly back on form and we at Ashaway are very proud to have her on our player team.

For more information on the national rankings: Click here to see the badminton England rankings

RACHEL REACHES WELSH OPEN SEMI FINAL

2009-12-14T03:35:00.000-08:00

Update from Rachel ...

Having spent the summer reocvering from my ankle injury, I started my 09/10 season with the Bulgarian IC in October. Since then I've played 5 other tournaments and my level has improved with each one. I was particularly pleased with reaching the semi-final of the Welsh IS last week! My english ranking is now at 4 and international ranking at 98. This puts me in a good position to hopefully gain a seeding at the Senior Nationals in February. My results have been as follows:

October
Bulgarian IC: Second round
Oxford Satallite: Winner! (beating Caroline Westley and Jo Dix)
Hungarian IS: losing narrowly in the second round to No 2 seed Bibik 21-18, 12-21, 17-21

November
Norweigan IC: losin narrowly in the second round to Jorgenson 21-19 16-21 15-21
Bucs Individual Badminton Championships: Bronze Medal
Welsh IS: Semi Finalist (beating Robertshaw and 3/4 seed Magee)

Next tournaments are Irish IC this week, followed by Turkey IS just before Christmas.

We wish Rachel the best of luck as she continues to climb the rankings!

2009/10 Season Update

2009-08-19T05:53:00.000-07:00

Quick Update from Rachel for the blog on her plans for the coming 2009/10 season:

"Back in May this year, in the semi-final of the Slovenian International Series, I damaged 3 ligaments in my left ankle. Was quite a serious injury and its taken me the best part of three months to get over it. Am finally back in full training again as of this week.

As I've pretty much missed the whole of our summer training phase I've decided to delay the start of my season - so not starting in August like everyone else but instead spend the next 6-8 weeks training hard to get my court fitness back up. Aim is to start competing in tournaments from October, playing Bulgarian IC (early Oct; pending progress in training), Hungarian IS (late Oct), Norweigan IC, Scottish IC (Nov), Welsh IS, Turkey IS (Dec), Dunfermline Elite, Wimbledon Elite, Swedish IS (Jan) and the Senior Nationals (Feb).

During the last two seasons I've spent half the time injured. Lets hope this ankle injury is my last and see what ranking I can achieve when fit and able to compete for a whole season..."

RACHEL REACHES SLOVANIAN SEMI-FINAL!

2009-06-30T03:06:00.000-07:00

Rachel reached the semi finals of the Slovak Open, retiring at 19-19 in the second set. She had beaten the 2nd seed in her first round and was looking and feeling strong before she unfortunately had to retire.

This is Rachels first EBU tournament semi final and a real acheivement. Who knows what would have happened if she hadn't picked up an injury!

Rachel has recently heard that she will recieve continued funding from badminton england, despite the budgets cuts, it's great to see that Badminton England still have faith in Rachel above so many others (as do we!).

RACHEL PROGRESSES AT THE ALL ENGLAND

2009-03-03T10:56:00.000-08:00

Rachel managed to get through the 1st round of the All England prelimary tournament beating the Russian Ekaterina Ananina (world 107) in 3 sets:14-21, 21-4 and 21-11.

One game away from the All England main event she came up against the strong danish player Nanna Brosolat Jensen (world 46), unfortunately she came off second best. But with only one other English player making it this far this is further proof tat Rachel is back in form.

RACHEL WINS NORFOLK CHALLENGER!

2009-03-03T05:19:00.000-08:00

Rachel is definately regaining her fitness and form. This week she has managed to defeat another Ashaway player, Caroline Westly in the final of the Ashaway sponsored Norfolk Open (Challenger Event).

Rachel popped by Ashaway HQ on Monday she said that the final was a close match but
that she finally came out on top winning 21-18 in the 3rd set.

Rachel was collecting some equipment and having here rackets re-strung as she was on her way to Birmingham as she has also managed to qualify for the prelimiery event of the All England, which takes place in Birmingham this week.

There's no stopping her now!

RACHEL AT THE ENGLISH NATIONALS

2009-02-17T04:22:00.000-08:00

Rachel Howard is our Ladies Singles player and now a full time professional player, she has recently recovered from a stress fracture that had here out of action for nearly 12 months and is now building her fitness level and match sharpness to press on to where she belongs at the top of the england rankings and beyond.

Rachel is pictured here during here 1st round victory at the english nationals, due to her long term injury she was not seeded in the event and in the second round came up against the number 1 seed Liz McCann. The game was very tight and could have gone either way, but unfortunatley fitness eventually played a part and Rachel bowed out after a strong performance.

RACHEL PREPARING FOR THE NEW SEASON

2008-08-27T07:30:00.000-07:00

Update from Rachel:

Unfortunately I experienced a stress fracture of my right tibia beginning of June

After four weeks of being on crutches (and going on holiday to Australia!) I’ve been gradually getting back into full training... starting with swimming and rehab exercises and more recently moving into badminton training and plyometrics etc...

I'm Hoping to be fit for end of September

Between now and Christmas the tournament plan for the ladies singles squad is:

York Elite (not playing myself)
Belgium (not playing)
Czech (hoping to be fit for this – 25-28^th September)
Hungarian
Wimbledon Elite
Norwegian
Irish
Italian

Even though missing first elite, there are two others (wimbledon in november and sussex in april) so may still be able to win the circuit like I did last year

I am remaining focussed on singles this season, so not so much doubles play.

I am training at the national centre in Milton Keynes, five days per week, coached by Chinese born Yvette Yun Luo. The ladies singles squad consists of players: Elizabeth Cann, Sarah Walker, Nicola Cerfontyne and Helen Davies

Achievements last season:

Won the national elite circuit (York and Wimbledon elite winner)
Reached semi-final of an international challenge event in Bulgaria
Notable wins against Anu Neminem and Elizabeth Cann (top 40 players)
First senior cap at Uber Cup in March
Selected for European Championships in April

Goals for this season:

To get back to level at which I was playing before my injury
To do well on the national elite circuit (it may be difficult to win again as I’ve missed the first tournament due to injury)
To reach semi-finals of international events and english nationals
To beat top national and international players

Rachel is pictured here as part of the photo shoot that took place last weekend.

Welcome to the Rachel Howard Blog

2008-07-04T05:24:00.001-07:00

Last season Rachel Howard was ranked number 1 ladies singles player on the Elite tournament circuit, she earned her 1st England cap, and represented the British Universities team. She did all this whilst studying full time and practicing when and where she could.

This season will be her first season will be her first as a full time player. She is on the Elite athlete's program and is one of the big hopes for england ladies singles.

This blog will give a unique insight into Rachel's progress this season. Find out what playing at the highest level of the game all over the world is like, the ups and the downs, the tips and tricks and the inside track on world badminton.