Rhoe badminton player Sam Magee showed his class when he won a gold medal in the doubles competition of the European Junior Championships in Milan on Sunday.

In a first for Ireland, the 19-year-old and his French playing partner, Sylvain Grosjean, defeated the Denmark duo, Emil Holst and Mads Petersen, to take the title.

The younger brother of Olympian, Chloe Magee, Sam has been making inroads into world of badminton in his own right and currently trains out of Denmark.

“I just can’t believe it, I can’t take it in, I know it will hit me at some point, Sylvain’s the same, it’s totally unbelievable,” Magee said after his win.

“We were both very nervous ahead of the game but we had our tactics right and Jim (Laugesen) had analysed the Danish style of play very well and we just focused on that to help us through. This is a very important win for Ireland I feel as it proves to all us players and to Europe that the system Badminton Ireland have put in places is working well under Jim’s direction.”

Magee and Grosjean won the first set 27-25 but lost the second 14-21. They then had to hold their nerve to come through strongly and win the final set 21-18. On the way to the final, the duo eliminated pairings from Spain, Holland, Russia and Denmark.