Top seed beats Ouseph in European semi-final

Rajiv Ouseph’s bid to reach a second successive European Championships final ended with defeat to top seed and defending champion Jan O. Jorgensen.

The west Londoner, a silver medallist in 2014 after losing to Jorgensen, trailed for virtually all of this semi-final against the world number five, losing 11-21 16-21.

Fifth seed Ouseph’s run to the last four included victories over Ukraine’s Dmytro Zavadsky and France’s Lucas Corvee before he beat fourth seed Hans-Kristian Vittinghus in the quarter-finals.

But another Dane – who had won eight of the 10 meetings between the pair – proved too good once again.

Ouseph won two of the first three points of the match but that was as good as it ever got. Jorgensen turned a slim 10-8 lead into a healthier 17-11 advantage, before closing out the first game with four straight points.

Having been behind in the second game, Ouseph did level at 9-9 and kept on Jorgensen’s coat tails at 15-14 but the Dane kicked on from there to seal the match.