The MGCI badminton team entered the Regional Badminton Competition held at North Toronto C.I. on Wednesday 9 April, and came out with a strong finish. All five players – Nancy Wu, Helen Ho, Alvin Janes, Kevin Tang and Edwin Lee – qualified for the City Championships at Albert Campbell on Monday April 14 April. The team performed well at the city championships as well, with three members of the team qualifying for the second day of competition, and with player Nancy Wu advancing to OFSAA, the provincial competition.
Alvin Janes prepares to serve, with partner Kevin Tang preparing to receive behind him. The two placed fifth at the City Championships. Photo courtesy of Kevin Tang.
Both the Mixed Doubles and Boys’ Doubles pair secured a fourth place spot at Regionals, while Nancy Wu took home a bronze medal in Girls’ Singles. In total there were twelve schools competing. Helen Ho and Edwin Lee won three of their five matches in the Mixed Doubles. Nancy won five of the six games she played, very easily winning some of those games. When asked about what she thought of her performance, Nancy said she could have used better technique and style.
“I’m planning on improving my footwork and my mood control. I lost a lot of points because I wasn’t confident enough and I was allowing my opponent to control the pace,” she says.
Members of the team also found the tournament to be much more tiring than the regular season. Helen Ho admits, “It was exhausting. We had to play around ten matches at Regionals when we were used to playing only a couple during the season.”
Less than a week later, the team competed at the City Championships. Helen and Edwin, playing Mixed Doubles, finished with one win and two losses which marked the end to their season. Alvin, Kevin, and Nancy managed to clinch spots in the second round of Cities on Thursday. Nancy won five of the seven matches she played on Thursday which allowed her to finish third and qualify for OFSAA. Alvin and Kevin finished in fifth and were only one place away from qualifying (the top 4 teams move on).
“I think we played all right and it was a good season overall,” said Alvin.
The final result was better than what the team’s coach Mr. Jay anticipated, not having expected to send any players to OFSAA this year. OFSAA matches will begin on 1 May.
