European Championships, MEN Arena, Manchester:
Dates: 14-18 April Coverage: Reports and results on BBC website

Olver and Clark first teamed up in the Malaysian Open in January

Defending mixed doubles champion Anthony Clark is out of the European Badminton Championships in Manchester after suffering a calf injury.

Clark, who won the event with Donna Kellogg two years ago, won his opening match with new partner Heather Olver.

But he had to withdraw from both the mixed and men's doubles, where he was due to partner Nathan Robertson.

"I'm obviously really disappointed, especially as Nathan and I had such high hopes," Clark said.

"At least I got on court to defend my mixed doubles title with Heather but this wasn't how I wanted things to turn out.

"I am disappointed for both my partners as well as for myself."

Despite struggling with the injury throughout their opening round match, Clark and Olver defeated Irish siblings Sam and Chloe Magee 21-15 21-16 and were due to face Polish second seeds Robert Mateusiak and Nadiezda Kostiuczyk in round two.

Robertson at least made a successful start to his mixed doubles campaign as he and partner Jenny Wallwork needed just 19 minutes to beat Welsh pair Joe Morgan and Kerry Ann Sheppard 21-7 21-14.

"It was nice to get quite a comfortable game in the first match," said Robertson.

"We're seeded through to the semi-finals and we've been playing well in tournaments, so hopefully by the end of the week we'll have medals round our necks. We're very confident."

Two other British pairs also made it through to the second round of the mixed doubles.

Seventh seeds Chris Adcock and Gabby White recorded a 21-16 21-15 win over Poland's Adam Cwalina and Malgorzata Kurdelska, while Welsh duo Richard Vaughan and Sarah Thomas also progressed at the expense of Aliaksei Konakh and Alesia Zaitsava from Belarus.

In the men's singles England's two top ranked players, Rajiv Ouseph and Carl Baxter, received first-round byes and had little trouble making it into round three.

National champion and fourth seed Ouseph, ranked 21 in the world, beat Austrian Michael Lahnsteiner 21-9 21-11 and Baxter, the eighth seed, beat Misha Zilberman of Israel 19-21 21-11 21-15.

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Top seed Peter Gade from Denmark, who is bidding for a fifth European title, also safely secured his passage with a 21-17 21-18 victory over Scotland's Kieran Merrilees.

Scotland's Alistair Casey, who beat Turkey's Murat Sen in his first round, also suffered a loss - 21-19 25-23 to Yauheni Yakauchuk of Belarus.

In the women's singles, England's Elisabath Cann reached round three of the women's event with victories over Poland's Anna Narel and Tatjana Bibik of Russia.

Helen Davies beat Zaitsava and then recorded a 21-12 21-15 win over Elisa Chanteur of France.

Scotland's Susan Egelstaff, seeded eighth, eased past Orsolya Varga of Hungary 21-13 21-13.

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