By: Teru Ikeda and Kajan Thiruthanikasalam
(Scarborough, ON) – The freezing rain, power outage, and gusty, January winds couldn't hamper this weekend's badminton enthusiasts. Birdies continued to fly over the myriad of nets at Centennial's AWC on the third and final day of the OCAA Invitational.
"Best place to be. It's not good outside," laughed Jolyon Thompson, Colts badminton Head Coach and Convenor.
The men's and women's singles and doubles matches concluded on Saturday. Humber won the men's singles (21-9, 21-18); George Brown, women's singles (21-11, 21-14); Seneca, men's doubles (21-19, 21-15); and Humber, women's doubles (21-13, 21-14).
"This tournament always confirms my assessment of the strengths of other colleges so that heading into the regional championships in a couple of weeks, it allows me to put our beat players in the positions that they can best advance to provincials," Thompson said of his team.
On the final day, the three-day affair wrapped up in a mixed doubles format. There were no upsets as all eight ranked teams advanced to the quarter-finals. In the championship game, top-ranked Poy Lo and Christine Nguyen of the Seneca Sting played against second-ranked Desmond Chan and Chloe Rowe of the Humber Hawks. The lower-ranked Humber team, however, took the mixed doubles hardware in a tight but impressive straight sets victory (23-21, 21-15).
In the B flight bracket, it was Seneca's Yaoren Liang and Alina Zeng who won the B flight for mixed doubles, taking it in straight sets (21-19, 21-14) over Georgian's Shubham Singh and Jessica Maher.
On the C flight bracket, the championship game featured a battle for which UTM team would take home that title. It was the combo of Vern Wei Chew and Kate Huang who did just that, beating the duo of Gary Dai and Oanh Tu Vu in straight sets (21-12, 21-8)
Two players from the host school participated in the C flight matches. Centennial's Glorinelle Quentin was paired with Boreal's Elliot Prudhomme, and Centennial's Leora Kotian with Boreal's Luc Demers.
"The Centennial tournament is usually the last tournament that allows players to qualify for regionals," Thompson said of how the invitational at Centennial has been during his time as head coach. "Traditionally, we have a really good turnout."
Even the flickering lights in the midst of a power outage earlier in the afternoon didn't stop the focus of these badminton players.
"People blinked and then continued playing," Thompson said. "There was no impact and everyone was focused on their matches and winning."
On Saturday, January 18th, Cambrian will host the Doubles Invitational, followed up by Georgian hosting the OCAA East Regional Championships from Jan. 31-Feb. 1. Conestoga will host the Provincial Championships on Feb. 13-14, followed by UTM wrapping up the badminton season by hosting the CCAA Championships on March 6-9.