Chloe and Sam Magee’s hopes of turning bronze into a silver or gold was ended on Saturday at the European Badminton Championships in Denmark after they lost their semi-final 2-0 to home favourites Christinna Pedersen and Joachim Fischer Nielsen.

The Donegal siblings had secured Ireland’s first ever medal at the championships on Friday with a victory over former European mixed doubles winners Robert Mateusiak and Nadiezda Zieba of Poland but the Danish top seeds proved a step too far as the Magees went down 14-21, 10-21 in 37 minutes in Kolding.

The Irish pair enjoyed a great week, also taking out the fifth seeds in the first round and also a top French pairing on Thursday.

Speaking on Friday after securing the quarter-final win that guaranteed a bronze medal, Chloe Magee said: "The aim, the goal was a medal. I think our whole career, that was our aim, winning a medal and we've done that today. It's really good when there's a guaranteed bronze but we can go out there now and really show how good we are."