| Imogen Bankier | |||||||||||||
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| Personal information | |||||||||||||
| Born | November 18, 1987 Glasgow, Scotland |
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| Height | 5 ft 7 in | ||||||||||||
| Country | Scotland | ||||||||||||
| Handedness | Right | ||||||||||||
| Coach | Pete Jeffrey | ||||||||||||
| Mixed doubles | |||||||||||||
| Highest Ranking | 11 (October 27, 2011) | ||||||||||||
| Current Ranking | 12 (December 1, 2011[1]) | ||||||||||||
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Medal record
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| BWF Profile | |||||||||||||
Imogen Bankier (born November 18, 1987 in Glasgow[2]) is a female badminton player from Scotland. After starting playing the sport at the age of 9, Bankier has won the national championships at every age level from Under 17 upwards. The highlight of her professional career so far was reaching the final of the mixed doubles at the 2011 World Championships in Wembley, London. She and her partner Chris Adcock were defeated in the match by the Chinese team.[3]
Bankier started playing badminton at the age of nine in what she describes as "very competitive Bankier family games in the back garden."[4] Before competing at senior level in 2007 she won women's doubles and mixed doubles titles in the Under-17, Under-19, Under-21 and Under-23 age groups as well as various international open championships in doubles. Since making the step up she has taken a total of eight Scottish titles, three coming in the women's double and five in the mixed doubles.[5]
Bankier's first major international tournament was the the 2008 European Badminton Championships in Herning, Denmark where she lost out to the English pair in the quarter-finals of both doubles tournaments. She returned to compete in the mixed double at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India where she again fell to an English pairing (who would go on to win silver) in the quarter-finals.[6] Bankier's career highlight to date however came on 14th August 2011 when she won a silver medal in the mixed doubles event at the World Championships. In a surprise run, she and her English partner Chris Adcock defeated four seeded pairs before losing out 21-15 21-7 to the world No 1 pair of Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei in the final.[7] Despite being somewhat disappointed with her personal performance in the final, Bankier was quoted as saying that her play in the tournament as a whole would hopefully increase her chances of being selected for the 2012 Olympics in London.[8]
Milton Keynes based Bankier is right handed, 5ft 7in tall and uses equipment manufactured by Yonex, one of her sponsors. Her other sponsor is Glenkeir Whiskey's which is ran by her father, Celtic chairman Ian Bankier. Imogen was one of several high profile British and International players to speak out against the Badminton World Federation's plan to force female players to wear short skirts. The BWF claimed the move was aimed at "raising badminton's profile and that of women players" whereas Bankier hit back ""I will fight to make sure this dated and simply sexist rule does not happen."[9]