Cycling: Imogen Bankier and Chris Adcock beat world No 1s

IMOGEN Bankier and Chris Adcock claimed a huge scalp at the Yonex All England Open by beating world champions, Nan Zhang and Yunlei Zhao, in the first round of the mixed doubles.

Beaten by the Chinese in the World Championship final at Wembley last year, the British duo defeated the world No 1 pair at the Korean Open in January and staged a repeat by coming back from dropping the opening game to win 16-21, 21-19, 21-19 in Birmingham.

This is a fantastic win and just what we need in Olympic year,” said Bankier. “The crowd was great and really helped us.”

Glasgow’s Bankier and Englishman Adcock, who are ranked No 14 in the world and lead the race to make Team GB for this year’s London Olympics ahead of English pair Nathan Robertson and Jenny Wallwork, now meet the unseeded South Koreans, Yeong Seong Yoo and Ye Na Yang. The British No 2 pair, ranked No. 18 in the world, also went through to the last 16 with a 21-18, 21-18 win over Thailand’s Songphon Anugritayawon and Kunchala Voravichitchakul.

Having survived two qualifying rounds, Scots Robert Blair and Jillie Cooper went out 15-21, 17-21 to Indonesia’s Muhammad Rijal and Debby Susanto.