London 2012 the target as Scots dissolve partnership

Scotland's hugely successful badminton women's doubles partnership of Imogen Bankier and Emma Mason are going their separate ways.

Their last match together on the European Badminton Union circuit, on which they have won three times on their way to becoming the No.1 pair, was last Thursday, when they lost to England's Natalie Munt and Joanne Nicholas in the Bank of Scotland Centenary International Championships.

When they take the court next week in the Russian Open in Moscow they will be with English partners, ending a run of four years together.

Bankier, 20, is scheduled to team up with Sarah Bok and Mason, 21, with Gabrielle White, a women's doubles runner-up with Mariana Agathangelou at the Kelvin Hall on Sunday.

Bankier, who won the mixed doubles with new Anglo-Scottish partner Robert Blair, assured that there had been no fallout with Mason, but, with the encouragement of coaches, there had been mutual agreement to split up and try new partners.

At their peak they had reached world No.24, but their ranking has slipped to No.34, and the target is now the London Olympics in 2012 and not Beijing next year.

Bankier has been attending the National Training Centre at Milton Keynes since January along with both Blair and Bok in a set-up where players are regarded as British rather than belonging to home nations.

"There are several players of the same standard and we are all developing, but none of us are going to make the Olympics," said Bankier. "It doesn't matter about getting points, because we are not trying to qualify, so we are taking this opportunity to try out different partners. We will see how it goes.