By: Ryan Watson & Jolyon Thompson 

Scarborough, Ontario - Three Colts made it to the latter stages of the Centennial Badminton Invitational on Saturday. Brandon Cheung and Adam Wilson formed their dynamic duo only 24hrs before the event took place and hacked their way to the finals with ease. "We don't practice together a whole lot so it was really sweet that we got to come together and win," said Cheung. Thanks to an injury to his teammate the day before, head coach Jolyon Thompson needed to find a solution to allow his fifth-year player to be able to compete —-  pairing Cheung with Wilson was the answer. In the quarterfinals, they faced a team from Conestoga, beating them in two sets 21-19, 21-16. This win propelled them into the semis where they beat a duo from St. Lawrence College 21-16, 21-16. 

There was a glimmer of hope for the Colts to have three of the four players in the finals adorning the green and black but Roney Roy and partner Sarthak Arora, from George Brown, were defeated 2-1 in their semifinal match against a duo from Humber College. Roy explained in an interview that his original teammate had been affected by an injury to his leg which is why he was playing with someone from another school. Despite the curveball of having to play with a new teammate Roy had high praise for his counterpart."[Arora] is so good, he is a singles player and we make a good combination" the mixed college pairing only needed 2 frames to win their quarterfinal match against Seneca College taking sets one and two 21-19, 21-10 respectively. Unfortunately, the newly formed duo's luck ran out in the semis ending the possibility of having Centennial on either side of the net in the finals.

Wilson and Cheung found themselves in the finals against the pairing from inner-city rival Humber, where they fell in straight sets 21-18, 21-13, but both Colts were happy and proud of their performance given that their designation as 'teammates' began less than 24 hours before their finals appearance. "The key was a lot of teamwork and a lot of communication that really did carry us pretty much, throughout the whole tournament," said Cheung post-finals. "He put up with me barking at him the whole time, it was fun," said Wilson.

Wilson is traditionally a singles player but moved to doubles for the weekend. When asked if he has a future in the doubles category, Wilson said that it's quite possible."It's actually looking that way," he said, "it's looking like that might be the way we have to go, looking forward to it."

On the women's side of things, Ivy Wong was a consolation finalist for women's singles, after which she teamed up with Deniese Scott to be a finalist in the B round of the women's doubles competition. The duo of Faye Anne Tenio and Mariel Anne Vallarit won the consolation women's doubles.