The Varsity Blues badminton team’s performance in the 2014 Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Championships was in stark contrast to their victory last year. Featuring nine universities, the Championships took place March 7–9 at the University of Waterloo. Despite capturing the OUA title in 2013, the Blues only managed to place sixth this time around. Overall, the Toronto team received a total of seven points, a sharp decline from the 59 points the combined team effort won the previous year. After this disappointing result, they placed poorly at the national competition in Quebec City this past weekend.
A significantly larger tournament than the OUAs, the College-University Nationals Championships occurred March 21–23 and posed a much more substantial challenge to U of T’s badminton players.
The Blues men’s team suffered a dismal defeat in the men’s singles event. Although Jackie Yeung managed to defeat Western’s Daniel Wei in the first round of the men’s singles competition, he was defeated in the second round by ETS’s Keng Fuk Chhan 19-21, 12-21.
Similarly, Blues’ captain Adam Chan’s walkover to the second round was a missed opportunity as he fell 19–21, 22–20, 12–21 to Julien Dery of Laval Rouge et Or. The other men’s players Po-Han Wu, Victor CH Chan, Jonathan Young, and Jonathan Wong did not proceed past the first round. The men’s singles title was eventually won by Philippe Charron of the Montreal Carabins.
Much like the singles, the men’s doubles event also proved to be disappointing for the Blues. As the only pair out of three making it through round one, Yeung and CH Chan faced tough opposition in the second round and succumbed to Western’s Martin Giuffre and Waterloo’s Nathan Lee 9–21, 5–21. Giuffre and Lee would later go on to win the men’s doubles event.
U of T’s mixed double teams gave a more hopeful performance before being ousted by the competition. Worthy of mention is Andrew Wilkinson, who, alongside Ryerson’s Vivian Kwok, managed to reach the quarter-finals.
Team captains Adam Chan and Jody Chan also fought well in their second round match against Western, but were felled in the third round by top seed Philippe Charron and his partner Caroline Beauregard by a score of 21–10, 21–10. Their teammates CH Chan and Jewel Ho lost in their first match in round two with 8–21, 10–21, while Yeung and Bethany So also saw defeat there from University of Alberta’s eventual victors Nathan Osborne and Josephine Wu.
The women’s singles performance garnered more positive results with Bethany So, who represented Canada at the 2013 Summer Universiade, reaching the women’s singles quarter-finals. However, So’s journey to the semi-finals was impeded by Humber College’s Tracy Wong, who defeated the Scarborough native 21–17, 21–19. Jody Chan was also defeated in the second round by eventual finalist Anne-Julie Beaulieu of the Rouge et Or, 21–14, 21–16. Beaulieu had previously defeated U of T’s Jewel Ho in round one.
Women’s doubles, on the other hand, proved to be more successful overall. Paired with Josephine Wu, Chan managed to reach the semi-finals where the duo was defeated by Beaulieu and Andree-Ann Allard 21–17, 21–17. Nevertheless, Beaulieu and Allard failed to win the women’s doubles event, falling to So and her partner Vivian Kwok of Ryerson University in the finals.
Kwok and So won the title with the score of 21–16, 15–21, 21–14. Although So and Chan were not on the same doubles team, both achieved admirable results for U of T with their respective partners, finishing first place and fourth place respectively in the event.
