2008 Yonex U19 & U23 Canadian National Championships Complete Results

May 13th, 2008 by Administrator

The junior nationals is now over and the results are completed in full for those that are interested in the results. I haven’t really looked into everything in great detail but I did notice that the guys’ singles events were a pretty big surprise (at least to me). Both Joseph Rogers and Avish Makol were upset by Richard Liang and Andrew Tai-Pow respectively. Good results for these guys I have to say. Don’t know either of them that well really, I’m sure they deserve the win. I have seen Andrew play a couple times, and while I’m not a fan of his on court shouting, screaming etc he is good so I give him props for that. Richard I have played in doubles, but never singles.

As for the other events, congrats to Darren Hong and Logan Campbell for winning the u19 boys doubles, looks like your nights out at The Fox in Edmonton didn’t sidetrack you too much ; ) Congrats to all the other winners too.

Full Results Here

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2008 Yonex U19 & U23 Canadian National Championships

May 7th, 2008 by Administrator

Well the Canadian Junior Championships are underway again, and quite frankly I really don’t know very many of the players anymore. I’m sure that a number of you do know the players this year, and for those of you that do here is a link to the draws.

2008 Yonex U19 & U23 Canadian National Championships

My bet this year is Joe Rogers in the U23 singles, and Avish Makol in the U19 singles. That’s pretty much all I got, beyond that I really don’t know what’s going to happen. Good luck to all of the juniors!

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David Snider is Obscenely Good

February 12th, 2008 by emmet

Not much to say here, just watch and enjoy. Keep an eye out for the back flip at the end…

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2008 Yonex National Badminton Championships Players List

January 15th, 2008 by emmet

So the entry deadline has past for the upcoming nationals at the end of the month, and after 2 consecutive years of pathetic entry numbers, this year actually looks pretty good. Here is the players list.

The only notables that are missing that I can think of right away are Andrew Dabeka, Charmaine Reid and Fiona McKee, otherwise it looks like it should be a pretty competitive tournament. Even guys like Mathieu Laforest are back in the mix this year after missing last year’s event.

No predictions as of yet really, except that Will Milroy and Mike Beres had better win this tournament or hand over their rackets for good, seriously. Also, Anna Rice had better win, same deal here, hand over your racket if you lose. All the other events I really don’t know about yet, I have been out of the loop to long to make an accurate prediction. Actually I’ll try anyway, here we go:

MS : Bobby Milroy def Stephan Wojcikiewicz
WS : Anna Rice
MD : Milroy/Beres def Laforest/Laforest
WD : who cares
MXD : Vandervet/Sun def Beres/Loker (gotta have one major upset right???)

Women's Doubles Sucks

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Canada Winter Games Badminton Team Event Completed (Partial Results)

March 4th, 2007 by emmet

The team event is now complete, and we have the final standings, but they haven’t posted the the individual match results yet, so we don’t know who played what, and what matches made the difference. However, what I know is that my prediction was right, British Columbia won the team event. In the final it was B.C. beating Quebec 3-2 while the bronze medal went to Alberta who defeated Ontario 3-1. Once again, we don’t know who won what, but I will wager that Quebec won the men’s singles, other than that I can’t even guess. If Mathieu didn’t win the singles, I’m sure he will be extremely disappointed about it.

When/If they post the full match results we will let you know. For now here are the final standings:

Gold: British Columbia
Silver: Quebec
Bronze: Alberta
4th: Ontario
5th: Manitoba
6th: Saskatchewan
7th: Nova Scotia
8th: Newfoundland and Labrador
9th: New Brunswick
10th: Prince Edward Island
11th: Northwest Territories
12th: Yukon
13th: Nunavut

Official Results Page

Team B.C.Team B.C.

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Mathieu Laforest and Jocelyn Ko Dominate Canada Winter Games

February 28th, 2007 by emmet

Both Mathieu Laforest and Jocelyn Ko won double crowns in the individual events of the Canada Winter Games in badminton. Also, both of them paired with their siblings to win their respective doubles events. Their impressive results even caught the attention of CBC News and SLAM! Sports Online.

First off Mathieu Laforest partnered with his younger brother Francis to win the men�s doubles without dropping a set the entire tournament, a feat that Mathieu mimicked in his singles. Mathieu was the heavy favourite in my eyes to take the singles, but the doubles was a big surprise. The Laforest brothers defeated Alvin Lau and Toby Ng in the semi-finals 21-18, 21-18 to setup a final against Alberta�s Justin Mullaly and Brody Hilland. They had an extremely close first set, winning 26-24, but winning the second more comfortably, 21-16 to take the gold. Mathieu defeated B.C.�s Chris Lee 22-20, 21-14 to take the gold in the men�s singles.

Next up Jocelyn Ko teamed up with her sister Stephanie Ko to win the women�s doubles, which was also a big surprise. While I overlooked Jocelyn in the singles, it wasn’t that big of a surprise to me, Jocelyn has always been a really talented player, I guess I just gave too much credit to the up and coming players. Jocelyn and Stephanie won the gold without dropping a set the whole tournament. In the women�s singles things were much tighter. Jocelyn just snuck past Isabelle Mercier Dalphond 21-15, 16-21, 21-19 to make it to the final where she beat Jennifer Lam 21-16, 21-19.

The other title, mixed doubles, went to Toby Ng and Melodie Liang when they defeated Alvin Lau and Charmaine Yeung. Both teams are from British Columbia.

Now, I only got 1 out of 5 predictions right, but with the exception of the women�s events, I wasn�t very far off. Both Lau/Ng and Mullaly/Hilland managed to do quite well, but the Laforest brothers winning was a bit of a surprise to me. And with the mixed, I wasn�t far off either. As for the girls, I will never get women�s badminton, sorry. If any girls are interested in writing about girls� badminton, feel free to leave a comment.

Check out the draws here

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Canada Winter Games Badminton Events Predictions

February 26th, 2007 by emmet

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

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Conrad’s Canadian Nationals Rant 2007

February 8th, 2007 by conrad

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.
Conrad

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And The Black Card Goes To…

February 6th, 2007 by conrad

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.

Tim Ma

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Mike Beres Wins the Triple Crown!!

February 4th, 2007 by emmet

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.

View the Draws

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