Two teenage friends from Little Heath, Potters Bar, celebrated a fabulous one-two earlier this month, when they both reached the final of the Home Countries U15 badminton tournament.

Laura Cousins, of Swanley Bar Lane, and Katie Comras, of Osborne Road, both representing England, saw off the challenge of girls from Scotland, Wales and Ireland to reach the final. Laura narrowly came out on top in a thrilling match.

The girls took up the sport at the age of seven while at Little Heath Primary School.

After progressing through the ranks at club and county level, they are now on the Sport England-funded World Class Start Programme.

"They started playing through a junior club called Swift and then they got into the county squad," said Christine Comras, Katie's mother.

"They both played in a number of age group tournaments and after some excellent results, they were selected for the World Class Start Programme."

The girls have since represented England at home and abroad and benefit from top-class coaching twice a week at the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield and Haberdashers Boys' School in Elstree.

Despite their success, both girls are fiercly competitive, though they admit badminton will never get in the way of their friendship.

"We both really enjoy playing," said 13-year-old Katie.

"Although we play against each other, it is a team environment and we both want each other to do really well.

"It is quite overwhelming to play for England, but it is such a great feeling."

Laura, also 13, echoed the feelings of Katie, and expressed her desire to continue her progress through the badminton ranks.

She said: "I would like to have at least a couple of caps for England at senior level, and I would like to play at the Olympics. But when it gets to that level, it becomes quite difficult.

"Denmark are the European champions and they are outstanding. They train a lot more than we do and they have more money put into the sport.

"But if we can both keep improving maybe we can challenge them in the future."