Canada Winter Games Badminton Events Predictions

I really don�t fancy the idea of going up to Whitehorse, but I am envious of all these players who get the chance to play in the Canada Winter Games this week. I�m going to do my best to pick the winners of the different events here, including the highly coveted team event.

Team Event

For the team event the seeds are (1) Quebec (2) British Columbia (3) Alberta (4) Ontario. I’m not sure exactly what to think of this. I don’t know if Quebec is capable of winning this with their line-up. Of course Mathieu Laforest is heavily favoured to win all of his matches, but against B.C. I don�t know if they can pull through in the other events. Maybe they can take women’s doubles, I don’t know enough about this event to say much but, for men’s doubles, women’s singles, and mixed doubles I think B.C. will beat Quebec.

I think B.C. is a strong favourite to take the team event. I think Ontario has no shot at all, and I won�t even bother mentioning any other provinces with the exception of Alberta who probably have the best chance to beat B.C. if anyone does.

Team B.C. or Team Alberta??

In the men’s singles it will probably be Brody Hilland against Chris Lee, and this is a tough one to call. I don’t think Brody has had a lot of practice recently since going to university. I have no clue about Chris, other than he had a good match against Mathieu Laforest at U23 nationals last year, but I will go with Chris Lee since I think Brody has not been training as regularly lately.

Women’s singles will go to B.C. for sure. If Alice Man doesn’t take this (ie she is injured) then keep an eye out for Tonya Harding’s boyfriend.

Men’s doubles is another close one, and will likely be between Alvin Lau/Toby Ng and Justin Mullaly/Brody Hilland. Once again I will say that B.C. is likely to take this since both Justin and Brody haven’t been playing much.

Women’s doubles goes to B.C. for sure.

Mixed doubles is another B.C. event unfortunately for my Alberta friends. Justin Mullaly is a mixed master, but I just don’t think he has a strong enough partner to beat either B.C. team. I guess in the end I will have to say that B.C. are the heavy favourites to take the team title. The only way that Alberta can win is IF Brody Hilland plays singles (sorry, I don’t think Avish has a shot against Chris Lee or Richard Liang) and wins, Justin and Brody win the doubles, and Justin manages to pull off a huge upset against one of the B.C. mixed doubles pairs. Not impossible, but highly improbable.

Men�s Singles

Well I think I wrapped this up previously when I spoke about Mathieu Laforest. He is the top seed and certainly the favourite, but not unbeatable. I would say that both Chris Lee and Brody Hilland have a shot against him, but it would be a big upset either way. Mathieu is well known for being a great tournament player, getting better with each round.

Women�s Singles

This is a tough one to call, but I will say this, I don’t think Samantha Ralph is going to win. I think it is going to be Alice Man, Phyllis Chan, or Michelle Li. I don’t really know the women’s singles too well, but these girls are really good players, and all part of a new breed of women’s singles, while I see Samantha Ralph being part of the older breed of player, in spite of the fact she is still U23.

Men�s Doubles

This could very well be the most interesting and exciting event to see. Alvin and Toby might be the top seeds, and silver medalists at the recent nationals, but Justin and Brody have a number of titles under their belt, not to mention that Justin beat Alvin and Toby last year with Conrad Sun, who is not Justin’s usual partner, and in severely worse shape than Brody. Mathieu and his brother Francis also have an outside chance, but I’d be really surprised if they won. Chris Lee and Richard Liang are seeded, but Chris is NOT a doubles player,

Women�s Doubles

I honestly have no clue on this one. And really I can’t say I’m all that interested in this. I apologize, we really should have a guest writer on to talk about the women’s events, anybody interested in guest writing? I’ll go with the top seeds on this, just cause I don’t know any better.

Mixed Doubles

I’d say there is a small chance that Justin Mullaly and Caroline Chee could win this, but realistically I would say that it will be either Alvin Lau/Charmaine Yeung or Toby Ng/Melodie Liang. To be fair though, I don�t know either of the B.C. girls so it is hard to say how well they will hold up under pressure.

Summary

Team Event: B.C.
Mens Singles: Mathieu Laforest
Womens Singles: Alice Man
Mens Doubles: Toby Ng and Alvin Lau
Womens Doubles: Isabelle Lavoie and Isabelle Mercier-Dalphond
Mixed Doubles: Alvin Lau and Charmaine Yeung