Alvin Lau and Toby Ng were chosen to carry the BC flag for the Canada Winter Games. It was a big surprise for Lau who recently won a silver medal at the Canadian National Championships in St. Albert in men’s doubles with Ng. “The first thought that came to my mind: ‘hockey’s going to get it” Lau was quoted as saying. As would be expected in Canada where hockey is the national past-time. But they have had some good results recently, and are hopefuls to win a medal. It’s good to see that the sport of badminton is getting some respect. One of the reasons for the selection was their involvement in their community, with both players having their coaching certification and helping out at ClearTwo Badminton Center. Congrats guys!

Read the Vancouver Sun Article Here

Well, there you have it�another Canadian National Badminton Championships in the books. For those of you that were there to watch it: Is it me? Or is Nationals just not what it used to be? I put this year�s Nationals on my list of disappointing sporting events of all time. Don�t get me wrong, the tournament was well organized and there were parts that we down-right exciting to watch, like Mike Beres� singles wins and men�s doubles semi-finals (Will and Mike vs Jon and Keith), and�oh wait� that�s it I guess. WHAT HAPPENED TO BADMINTON IN CANADA? I�m a huge fan of badminton and it just pains me to say that the state of badminton in Canada is straight-up terrible.

First of all, what is up with the entry level. Seriously, there were numerous players who played their first match in the quarters! Like Tim Rostrup from Alberta, who hasn�t competed since he was a junior and can�t smash because of an injured shoulder, and Greg Bury, a retired badminton player who isn�t even a doubles player to begin with, makes it to the quarter- finals without playing a match. No offense to Tim and Greg as they are good players (they won consolations), but c�mon now�players like that shouldn�t be making quarters of a National badminton championship tournament. Tim even told me, �I hope I don�t win the quarters cuz it would just be soooo bad for Badminton Canada�. And he�s right!! How bad would that have been?

Second of all, what is going on with women�s singles? I�ll tell you what�s going on�NOTHING, unless we find a way to keep our up-and-coming 15 year olds interested in badminton for the next 10 years. It is not my intention to insult Charmaine Reid as she as nice person, hard-worker and she deserved to win. But seriously, she only won because there�s nobody else to play her. Just look at her path to victory. She barely beats fifteen year old, Phyllis Chan in 3 sets (winning 30-29 in one set), then she goes to three sets with yet another 15 year old, Sarah Kong. And then she goes to 3 sets with a retired 46 year old Denyse Julien by having to catch up from being down 20-17 in the third set. I mean c�mon, are you telling me that all Canada has to offer to beat our national champion are a couple of juveniles (not even juniors yet) and a retired 46 year old? That�s TERRIBLE!! Charmaine is trying to make Olympics and also become a recognized player in the international badminton scene for both doubles and singles. I just don�t see that happening after watching her singles performance. With that in mind, I often wonder how Charmaine feels about her win. If I were Charmaine, I would look back at Nationals and say �Sweet�I won singles at nationals�good for me�BUT jeeez I BARELY won. That was an AWFUL, sub-par performance and I�m pissed off at myself. I need to give my head a shake and really think about how I really stand when it comes to women�s singles.� If Mike Beres or any of the active men�s players who have the similar goals to Charmaine faced a 15 year old or a retired 46 year old badminton player, they would CRUSH them, no questions asked.

On a side note, props to Denyse; she never ceases to amaze me. Also, props to Phyllis and Sarah. I�m sitting in the stands watching these girls play and I�m just flabbergasted at how sound their technique is and how strong they are physically at such a young age. They just need to mature a bit more within time, ladies singles will be where its supposed to be in Canada. I hope that Badminton Canada, or somebody will do something to keep more of these type of players interested in the sport so that we don�t see another 2007 women�s singles display.

Thirdly, what is up with the crowds�there was absolutely no cheering. Yes there was clapping and a few oooos and aaaahhhs but seriously, the level of enthusiasm from the crowd was BRUTAL. I�ve heard louder, more enthusiastic crowds at the opera (yes, I do go to the opera). We all love this sport (I know this otherwise you wouldn�t have drive all the way to St. Albert Saturday to watch), so SHOW IT! Show these players that you enjoy the sport and that you appreciate what you are watching.

I don�t want to sound like a whining babbling person but I�m only doing this because I love this sport and I want to see it be a success in Canada. I know there are tons of people out there who feel the same as I do but are just not voicing themselves. I�m also sure that there are people out there who will want to rebut some of the negative things I have said. So with that in mind I invite you people to comment on this posting.

Tim Ma! Yes that�s right, a black card. Never mind witnessing a black card, but have you ever even heard of a black card? We�ve all seen the yellow card and the odd red card, but never in my years of playing badminton have I ever witnessed anyone ever receiving a black card. That all changed on Friday, February 2 during the Nationals at the Red Willow Club when Tim Ma, after losing his mixed doubles match, proceeded to relieve his frustration by punching a hole in the wall behind the court. Of course this brought the hall to silence as none of us ever thought of Tim as being an angry person.

For me however, it was when the umpire brought out the black card that caught me off guard. I�ve never even heard of it, never mind seen it. I later learned that if you are given a black card, you are disqualified from the tournament. So in this case, Tim Ma was not allowed to play consolations. I don�t think he was too upset about it seeing as that he was already eliminated from the rest of the events. And in case you�re wondering, Tim did offer to fix or pay for the damages but the owners of Red Willow were kind enough to let it slide. Tim Ma was not nominated for the sportsmanship award.

Wow. Mike Beres won the triple crown this weekend at the nationals. Last I spoke to Mike about his career he was saying that he may not play beyond this year. For the men’s doubles and mixed doubles I am not particularly surprised. The men’s doubles was pretty much Mike and Will, or Keith and Jon as far as I was concerned. The mixed was either Mike and Val, or Will and Tammy. But in the men’s singles, I was almost 100% sure it was going to be Stephan and Andrew in the finals. I would have bet $100 that Andrew would beat Mike in the semis. Not to say Mike isn’t a good singles player, but Andrew is doing some serious training, and specialized in singles. Whereas Mike played all three events. I suppose the 21 points did Mike well.

Anyway, Mike beat Andrew 15-21, 21-17, 22-20 in the semis. A really close match, and I guess it could be that Andrew wasn’t playing his best (he did go three games with young gun David Snider), but props to Mike. On the other side Stephan Wojcikiewicz beat Kyle Foley in another three game battle 17-21, 21-14, 21-15. Then in the finals Mike beat Stephan in a very close three games 19-21, 21-17, 21-19.

Mike and Val Loker won their mixed title after only playing 3 matches, and not dropping a single game the entire time. In the final they defeated Tammy Sun and Will Milroy 21-19, 21-17. Finally Mike’s last title was the men’s doubles with partner Will Milroy. They had a really close semi-final against Keith Chan and Jon Vandervet, winning 17-21, 21-9, 21-19. The final however was not nearly as close, they defeated Toby Ng and Alvin Lau in two short games 21-11, 21-11.

As for the women’s events, Charmaine Reid won a double crown. In the doubles she partnered up with Fiona McKee who got her first Open event national title, without dropping a game. However, they only had to win two matches to win the title. In the final they defeated Florence Lavoie and Amelie Felx 21-18, 21-14.

Finally in the women’s singles Charmaine played Canada’s winningest player, Denyse Julien. It was a very close match, but Charmaine came out the champ winning 21-15, 14-21, 22-20 to take her second national singles title in a row.

Overall it was a disappointing nationals, with very few entries, and two marquee players (Bobby Milroy and Anna Rice) not playing. It seems like badminton in Canada is going through something of a drought. We need a lot more people to play, this was just weak compared to past events.

2005 U14 Nationals So that means she is no more than 16 years old! Not sure exactly what that says, but either our current high performance players are really weak, or our upcoming talent is very strong. As I write this so far only Charmaine and Denyse Julien are into the semis, and they wait to see who they are playing.

In the men’s doubles they don’t have any results posted yet for the top two quarter-finals, but I am going to go out on a limb and say that we should expect Milroy and Beres to be playing Chan and Vandervet in the semis. If not, I’ll be very surprised. It is a shame that these pairs are playing each other in the semis, because I really think that Chan and Vandervet are the only ones that can realistically beat Milroy and Beres, so this should actually be the final in my eyes. On the bottom half we have Ng and Lau against the Bourret brothers. I really can’t make much of a prediction on this one as I haven’t seen much of the Bourret brothers. I will however go out on a limb and say that Ng and Lau will take it because Bourret Jr. doesn’t look to be solid enough to compete at a high enough level.

The women’s doubles is a complete lottery in my eyes, simply because I don’t know how good any of them are. I originally thought that Sun and Nichol were a good team to pick, but they lost to Julien and Ralph, so perhaps now I should adjust my prediction to say that Julien and Ralph will take the title. The other pair that could take it are Reid and McKee, who have been playing some tournaments abroad.

Finally the mixed doubles. No surprises so far, all of the top 4 seeds are still in as expected. What I see it coming down to is who can handle the pressure the most. I think that eliminates Foley and Nichol as Foley has never won a national title, I don’t see him doing it in an event that isn’t his strongest. I predict the final will be Beres and Loker against Milroy and Sun. As for who will win that one, I’m not sure. Normally I would say that Milroy and Sun should win, but I would question their preparation leading up to this event. We will find out for sure tomorrow.