A Champion, a Cup, and a Challenge

On Sunday, November 23rd, 75 badminton players from throughout the Twin Cities area converged at the Kennedy High School Activity Center in Bloomington for the first local tournament in several years. The Minnesota Vietnamese Badminton Club organized and hosted the event, with significant help from the two other participating clubs, the Twin Cities Badminton Club and the University Badminton Club.

Players came to compete on behalf of their clubs, and to pursue individual honors. The doubles-only format included 3 levels of men’s competition (A, B, C) as well as 2 levels each of women’s and mixed. In all, 56 teams competed in these 7 events. Most participants represented MVBC, UBC, or TCBC, but others came from Arlington High School, Luxton Community Center, and Lindberg Activity Center in Hopkins.

The tournament emphasized interclub competition, with teams competing against those of other clubs in a round-robin format. Finals were held to determine the winners of each event. A beautiful crystal cup was awarded to the club with the highest winning percentage during the event.

At the end of the day, the results were clear. TCBC won 92% of its matches (33 of 36). Coming in second was MVBC, which won 46% (13 of 28) of its interclub matches. UBC followed closely behind winning 36% of its matches.

Individual event winners are as follows:

Men’s A:
Nixon Vang and Kumar from TCBC, who defeated their club-mated Norman Ong and Paul Rubin in 3 great games.

Men’s B:
Dave Daline and Ahbi Das from TCBC won on the forfeit of fellow TCBCers Dylan Leatham and Kia.

Men’s C:
Joseph Bosco and Sathappan Narayanan were last-minute subs from Hopkins who went on to defeat Chris Mische and Paski Paskaradavan of TCBC.

Women's A:
Heather Holm and Chy Yang came out on top in their group.

Women's B:
Celeste and Yean Chua became the pride of MVBC with their undefeated record.

Mixed A:
Kumar and Chy Yang defeated their TCBC rivals, Dave Daline and Ngoc Se in a one-game sudden death grudge match.

Mixed B:
James Cheng and Angela Min brought glory to UMC with their victory over John Cartlidge and Songying Fang from MVBC.

So, the cup is safely in the hands of TCBC for another year, but the challenge is clear. MVBC, UBC, and any other local group of players must clearly raise their level of play in coming months to wrest this prize away from its current owner. We hope this inaugural event has inspired all local badminton players to improve their skills and make a stronger showing in future competitions.

Tournament organizers also hope this event served to remind all of us that our sport has a large and loyal following in the Twin Cities. Together, we can make badminton more popular, more competitive, and more appreciated in Minnesota.