BADMINTON ace Brooke Stalker has set her sights on serving up a European Championship place after striking gold against some of the continent’s best.

The talented 12-year-old, a pupil at Queen Anne High School, followed up a hat-trick of titles at Badminton Scotland’s National Junior Championships with medals in tournaments held in both Sweden and Finland.

After a clean sweep of national under-15 titles, Brooke travelled to the Swedish Youth Games where, despite being unseeded, she earned a bronze medal in the under-13 girls’ singles.

The only British girl to reach that stage, it was only top seed Maria Hoejlund Tommerup, of Denmark, who stopped her in the last four, but not after the West Fifer ran her close in a 21-10, 26-24 scoreline.

Another medal followed in the doubles where, alongside English partner Lucy Brierley, they defeated Danish top seeds Anna-Sofie Nielsen and Malou Pedersen on their way to the final, only to lose out to Tommerup and partner Alberte Petrea Prasz Espersen.

Brooke then followed that up with further success at the Under-13 Forza Finnish Youth International, which was held over the last weekend of October and attracted some of the most talented youngsters from around the world.

Seeded 5/8 in the singles, she again reached the final but this time took gold, defeating top seed Brierley 21-13, 21-15, before they teamed up to win the doubles.

She was only denied a third gold in the mixed doubles final, where she and England’s Aarav Sujith lost a close match 21-19, 21-19, before East of Scotland junior titles in the doubles and mixed doubles (under-15), and a bronze medal in the singles (under-17) were won.

“I’ve just started to play internationals and it’s going well, but next year will be harder,” Brooke said.

“I’ll be playing at under-15 and I’ll be a year younger but I had a good season last year where I started to beat people I’d never beaten before.

“You have to believe in yourself. I’m trying to earn enough points to play at the Euros next year. That’s my big goal.

“I feel like my game has improved and I play better under pressure but I don’t think about it when I’m playing.

“I just try to enjoy it; I’m only 12 and I’m doing well, so I just want to keep it up.”

Brooke’s proud mum, Karen, added: “At the final in Sweden, she was 20-14 down in the final but came back to 20-20, so she is very calm under pressure.

“To win the Finnish, she had some tough matches and did very well. She’s trying to earn enough points to play at the Euros next year, which would be at under-17, and she’s capable of doing it.

“She’s continued to put in the training and the results are showing that.”