Western Canadian Team Championships

Tournament Report from Team BC Manager Cindy Simpson

January 28, 2014

Team BC's contingent of U14 and U16 badminton players traveled to Calgary for the 2014 Western Canadian Team Championships Friday, January 17th to Sunday, January 19th. Here is Team Manager Cindy Simpson's account of the events!

 

Friday, January 17th

Team leaves BC very early, to hotel and then to venue to practice andplay Alberta’s number one team at 2:00 PM.

 

Results:

U14: BC(4) - AB(3), AB(8) - BC(6)

U16: AB(5) - BC(2)

  

Unfortunately for our team, in her GD, at 20-all in the second game Jodi Fei sustained an injury to her knee which sidelined her for the rest of the event.

Jodi had won her singles match but with the loss of Jodi and with not having a third U16 girl, our team was down two matches every tie from then on.

The U14 girls Yoko Ujike and Michelle Yeung began their quest of winning all of their singles and doubles in all ties! Yoko also won all of her mixed events and Michelle won all but one! 

Despite the travel, tiredness and injury, Team BC performed well in their first tie.

 

Saturday, January 18th

Early chaotic breakfast and getting used to being ready on time and taxi riding to the venue were part of the learning curve of the day!

 

8:30 am vs Saskatchewan

An amazing tie for our team as the U14s swept Saskatchewan 7 – 0 and the U16s were 5 – 2!

 

11:30 am vs Alberta Blue (#2 team)

Again our U14s came through with a sweep of 7 – 0. One match went to three games and Konrad is to be congratulated for fighting to win the third in his singles.

The U16s were in tough, having lost two matches due to injury default. Our team needed to get wins and points to be a contender in the medal rounds! Maric Son contributed to two wins for our team by winning his singles and his doubles with Ryan Kitibutr in fine form. We ended tied for matches and games with Alberta but second in points! The team really rallied and supported each other in this crucial match.

 

3:30 pm vs Manitoba

The U14s won each match and every one in two games! Well done!

The U16s were awesome as well, only losing the two injury matches and one singles match. Steven Lu played extremely well and was very focused during his match, losing 20-22 and 19 – 21! 

With the completion of this win, we were in second place and entitled to play in the Championship round on Sunday!

 

Sunday, January 19th 

Championship Tie for Gold & Silver vs Alberta Gold

We arrived early at the venue to warm up and stretch. 

Although both of our teams worked hard, Alberta was very strong and played well.

Our U16s didn’t win a match and the U14s won three matches!

Our team members learned a great deal about team competition and being prepared! Although we came home with silver, our team bonded, developed new friendships and played their hearts out!

 

2014 Western Canadian Team Championships - January 17-19, 2014

December 16, 2013

Hosted by the Alberta Badminton Association, this team badminton event is being held at the ClearOne Badminton Centre in Calgary, AB.

Team BC's contingent will be participating against Team Alberta, Team Saskatchewan, and Team Manitoba.

Final Team BC for the 2014 Western Canadian Team Championships includes:

Coach: Morgan Van Heukelom

Manager: Cindy Simpson

U14 Boys

  • Konrad Van Heukelom         
  • Jonah Lee                  

U 14 Girls

  • Michelle Yeung      
  • Yoko Ujike          

U16 Girls         

  • Yun An Chen          
  • Jodi Fei

U16 Boys

  • Steven Lu          
  • Ryan Dean Kitibutr
  • Maric Son

 

 

Team BC brings home Silver at 2013 Western Canada Team Championships

January 14, 2013

After a competitive selection process which displayed the exceptional level of talent and commitment of many of our young BC athletes, Team BC for the 2013 Western Canada Team Championships was selected as the following:

Coach - Thushan De Silva
Manager - Phyllis Chan

U14 – Ruiqi He, Jodi Fei, John Tam, and Steven Lu
First Alternates – Arianna Auyeung and Jonah Lee

U16 – Dora Chien, Jasmine Li, Antonio Li, and Jeffrey So
First Alternates – Kylie Cheng and Felix Law

Click "Read more" below for a full Team BC event summary from Manager, Phyllis Chan.

At 6:20pm Pacific Time on January 10th, 2013, Team BC left the beautiful city of Vancouver to head to Saskatoon for the Western Canada Team Championship.  Nothing could have prepared the team for their late night arrival in the land of snow.  The team was bombarded by cold winds and snow as we walked around the deserted airport rental lot searching for our designated cars.  Everyone was very tired by the
time we were able to retire to our rooms at the Ramada.

The next day proceeded smoothly as everyone adjusted to the life of moving as a pack.  Team BC, renamed Team Bacon due to the tantalizing smell of bacon wafting from the kitchen, played Manitoba in the afternoon and pulled off an astounding win of 14-0.  On Saturday morning, the team was up and awake for their early match against Alberta at 9am.  The team lost the tie with the close score of 6-8.  Later that afternoon, they triumphed over Saskatchewan and qualified to replay Alberta for the gold on Sunday.

On day of the team finals, things were heating up between Alberta and Team Bacon (BC).  Team cheers of 'Do it for the bacon!' roused those on the court to play harder than they have ever played before.  Unfortunately despite everyone's best efforts, Team Bacon lost to Alberta with a score of 10-4 with many matches playing to three sets.  Team BC was awarded silver for their hard work.

Thushan De Silva, coach of the team, would like to commend all of the players for their spirit and is very proud of everyone's performance.  He would also like to thank the players' coaches and parents for their
continued support and Phyllis Chan (myself), manager, for her work this weekend.

Highlights of the weekend include John Tam and Jodi Fei's singles matches against Alberta.  Whether they were leading or a few points behind, they never stopped fighting for themselves and the team.  I also want to praise Ruiqi He and Jodi Fei's fantastically synchronized warcry for doubles.  It was absolutely amazing to see the normally quiet and reserved Ruiqi step up her game.  I hope she will continue to do so in the future.  Not to be outdone, Dora Chien, Steven Lu, and Jasmine Li were the steady anchors of the team with their consistent performance.  Throughout the weekend, they provided the team with crucial points that guaranteed at least a silver for BC.  Lastly but not the least, Jeffrey So and Antonio Li played very well against the top two players in Alberta and must be credited with the best attitude and humour on and off the court.

This weekend has been full of ups and downs and the team has stuck together the entire time.  Throughout the weekend, many memories and friendships have been made.  Poor Antonio will be called 'Fat Tony' by me for a while and I will continue to hold a grudge against Jeffrey So for lying to me during Big 2.  Feel free to ask anyone from the team about their stories and their experiences from representing BC at the Western Canada Team Championship.  I am sure their stories will make you laugh at least once.  To the team, take care and keep training hard.

Until next time,

Phyllis Chan

 

Team BC Victorious at Western Canadian Team Championships

January 16, 2012

2012 WCTC 3

Team BC at Western Canada Team Championships, January 13, 14, & 15, 2012, Winnipeg Winter Club, Manitoba.

BC was victorious in the U14/U16 combined team event defeating Alberta, in the Gold Medal Match.

Representing BC in the U14's were Jeffrey So, Jack Lin, Kylie Cheng, Jenna Wong, and Samantha Zheng.  The U16 team members were Christie Choy, Jasmine Li, James Ho and Calvin Che!  The coach was Harry Pan from Ace Badminton Club and the manager was Cindy Simpson.

The format of the event was round robin with 2 singles in each age category for males and females.  The singles event was ranked 1 and 2 and once we declared our singles players, we had to stay with that.  The events involving females we were able to change in the U14 as we had 3 players.

The qualifying event was a full round robin and we easily defeated Manitoba 2, Manitoba 1 and Saskatchewan with strong performances by all including our youngest player Samantha Zheng who won all of her matches in singles, doubles and mixed.

On Saturday afternoon, our fourth tie of the event, we played Alberta.  By this time, travel, change of climate, different food and time began to catch up to us.  However, the U14's despite strong play and close losses ended the tie 3 - 4.  The U16's knew they had to work hard and did so winning the tie 4 - 3 which meant that we were tied with Alberta overall 7 - 7 and into the Sunday gold medal match.

We had a pretty restful remainder of the day and on Sunday am, they were ready to go.

The format is such that two events were played at one time.  Jeffrey So and Jack Lin set us up for the start of success!  Although Jeffrey had lost to Byron Holcek of AB in singles the day before, he was on fire, focussed and fought to win his three game match.  On the next court was Jack Lin working hard for every point and although he lost the match 20-22 in the second game he demonstrated a fighting spirit which carried over to the girls.  Kylie Cheng literally flew about the court defeating her opponent.  Jenna had a very tall opponent in Monica Cowper to whom she had lost the previous day.  In this round, Jenna was on task and business like.  She won in the third game.  After the match, she said that was the best she had played and she surprised herself as to how well she moved about the court!

Next the U16 men took to the courts.  Calvin Che in our #1 position played Ty Lindeman.  On Saturday, Calvin lost to Ty in three.  Sunday was a different story, Calvin came out following his game plan and won in two.  Meanwhile on the next court, James was quickly winning his match. These two also set the tone for the U16's and the team.  The women took to the courts for their singles.  Jamine Li had a tough match with Alberta's no. 1 and although she lost both matches her scores, movement and shots were much better on Sunday.  Christie Choy easily won her singles as well.

The doubles were next.  The U14 team of Jeffrey and Jack avenged their Saturday loss to Alberta with a strong win over the same team.  The girl's team repeated their win from the day before.  The U16 girls of Christie and Jasmine had lost a three game tough match the day prior but on Saturday, they were victorious in another three game match pulling out the win 22- 20 in the third!  The U16 boys did not fare as well, losing to the team they had defeated the day before in three in a very close match.

Onto the mixed!  One of the longest matches on Saturday was the U16 mixed that Kylie Cheng and Jeffrey So played against AB prevailing in three, 21 - 17.  Sunday was a different story.  This focussed confident pair, playing a combination of mixed and doubles, defeated the same Alberta pair convincingly.  The U16 team of Christie Choy and James Ho had a very tough match on Saturday winning 25 - 23, 21 - 16 and repeated the win on Sunday with similar scores of 21 - 15, 23 - 21.

We finished the event with a team score of 11 - 3.  Broken down the contribution to the final medal results were U14, 6 - 1 and U16, 5 - 2.

This event was well run by Ryan Giesbrecht, the Executive Director of the Manitoba Badminton Association and hosted by Archie Chawla and the Winnipeg Winter Club.

Thanks to all the parents who welcomed us home yesterday at YVR with hugs, kisses, flowers and candy!

Coach Harry Pan, who did a wonderful job of coaching the players, and I were very proud of the way our players behaved, represented our province and performed the whole weekend!

For full event results go to Tournament Software at: 2012 Western Canadian Team Championships

Respectfully submitted,

Cindy Simpson
Team Manager,
Western Canada Team Championship Team!

2012 WCTC 5

 

Draws Posted for Western Canadian Team Championships

January 12, 2012

Hosted by the Manitoba Badminton Association, the draws for the 2012 Western Canadian Team Championships have been posted online.  This team badminton event is being held at the Winnipeg Winter Club in Winnipeg, MB this weekend, January 13-15, 2012.

Team BC's contingent will be participating against Team Alberta, Team Saskatchewan, and two teams representing Team Manitoba.

Team BC for the 2012 Western Canadian Team Championships includes:

Coach: Harry Pan

Manager: Cindy Simpson

U14 Boys - Jeffrey So and Jack Lin

U14 Girls - Samantha Zheng, Jenna Wong and Kylie Cheng

U16 Boys - Calvin Che and James Ho

U16 Girls - Jasmine Li and Christie Choy

Good luck to Team BC!

 

2011 Western Canadian Team Championships Results

January 19, 2011

2011 WCTC Team BC

Team BC at the 2011 Western Canadian Team Championships

Results from the 2011 Western Canadian Team Championships held January 14th to 16th, 2011 at the Hollyburn Country Club, West Vancouver, BC.

Alberta won gold in a decisive win over British Columbia winning 13 matches to BC's lone win.  Winning the bronze was Manitoba winning 12-2 over fourth place Saskatchewan.

2011 WCTC Teams Alberta/BC/Manitoba

2011 WCTC: Gold - Team Alberta, Silver - Team BC, Bronze - Team Manitoba

Congratulations to all Team BC athletes as the overall match count does not do their performance any justice.  Many matches were lost by the narrowest of margins and four matches in the final round went to three games.  Our full respect goes to Team Alberta as they were able to persevere during the close battles and had consistently strong performances throughout the weekend.