Badminton ace Lauren Smith will look to take confidence from her Azerbaijan International title win into the European Games.

Ahead of the multi-sport event in Minsk, Belarus, which starts on Friday, Longtown’s Smith and doubles partner Chloe Birch came out on top in Baku at the Azerbaijan International competition.

The English national champions, seeded third, claimed the women’s doubles crown with a 21-18, 21-12 victory in last Sunday’s 44-minute final against the Russian top-seeded pair of Ekaterina Bolotova and Alina Davletova.

Five-time Commonwealth Games medallist Smith, 27, and Birch had earlier beaten French pair Emilie Lefel and Anne Tran 21-7 22-20 to reach the final.

Smith said: "We're really happy with the result.

"It’s great to get a win like that relatively early in our Olympic qualifying year. We also beat two who I think will be some of our main competition for [Olympic] qualification in the semi-final and the final in Lefel and Tran, and Bolotova and Davletova.

"We didn’t drop a set the whole week which we’re really happy about. We showed good consistency, focus and some resilience when, inevitably, our opponents changed tactics.

"Once again, the things we have been working on in training have shown improvement so that’s really motivating."

Elsewhere at the Azerbaijan International, England also enjoyed a finals appearance in the men’s doubles but top seeds Chris Langridge and Marcus Ellis lost to German pair Mark Lamsfuss and Marvin Seidel.

At the second European Games, 15 sports will feature, including archery, cycling, boxing, badminton and karate, and Carlisle-born Smith feels she is in good form ahead of the event.

She said: "We have the European Games up next in Minsk, so we’re definitely taking confidence from this [her and Birch’s Azerbaijan International success] into that after a good couple of weeks training.

"I love representing Team GB at multi-sport events and I’m hoping it will bring the best out of our performances."

Smith is named in Britain’s squad for the European Games, alongside Chris and Gabby Adcock, Birch, Ellis, Kirsty Gilmour, Langridge and Toby Penty.