Team England Gold Coast 2018 Silver medalists Lauren Smith and Marcus Ellis reached the Semi-Finals of the All England Badminton Championships in Birmingham, before being defeated by eventual champions and fifth seeds Melati Daeva Oktavianti and Praveen Jordan from Indonesia.

The unseeded England pair lost the first game 21-15 before forcing a decider in a dramatic 21-23 second game, however a place in the final wasn't be as they lost the third game 21-11.

Despite the disappointment of missing out on the final, Smith and Ellis had a number of notable results including dispatching the fourth seeds of Tang Chun Man and Tse Ying Suet from Hong Kong and number ten seeds 

Alongside his Commonwealth Games silver medal, Ellis has tasted Olympic success after winning a bronze medal in Rio 2016 in the men's doubles with Chris Langridge - who he won Commonwealth gold in Gold Coast two years ago.

Smith and Ellis run to the semi-finals looks set to qualify them for the mixed doubles event in Tokyo 2020, which Ellis spoke about was a key aim for the pair going forward.

"This has been a fantastic week and hopefully a really big boost to our ranking, but we’ll see what lies around the corner, because there’s a lot of uncertainty coming our way in the next month or two."

The All England Badminton Championships was one of a very select few events to take place over the weekend due to the ongoing Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic that has decimated the sporting calendar.