Finchley’s Patricia Ianau celebrated her birthday in style by winning the Under-16 girls’ title at the Butterfly National School Individual Championships.

It was Ianau’s 15th birthday as she competed at the event in Wolverhampton, and she made her way through group and early knockout stages before defeating Danielle Kelly in a close quarter-final, triumphing 3-2 (11-5, 11-7, 7-11, 3-11, 11-4).

The London Academy player then beat Katie Holt 3-0 (11-7, 11-4, 11-8) in the semi-finals, before going on to sink Alice Dillon 3-0 (11-9, 11-5, 11-8) in the final.

Ianau said: “I thought at the start of the day that it would be nice to do well on my birthday and go home happy.

“It’s good to win the title, I’ve got a couple of second places in the team event but this is my first individual trophy.

“In the quarter-finals I think there were too many mistakes at 2-0 and my focus went down, but at 2-2 I kind of woke up.”

Ianau’s twin sister Natalia was competing in the Under-19 category but could not make it a double celebration, going out in the quarter-finals.