Ten Alberta athletes recently represented Canada at the Pan American Junior Badminton Championships held in Kingston, Jamaica from July 24-31.
Alberta players captured five gold, four silver and 7 bronze medals within the individual event championships. Adrianna Giuffre and Kacey Tung of Calgary were a part of the Canadian gold medal team. This marked the first time in a long time that Canada nominated age eligible athletes to compete in the team event, resulting in a gold medal.
Below find a lisitng of all the Alberta players, and how they fared in each of the events.
(L to R: Josephine Wu, Eileen Wong, Kyleigh O'Donoghue, Nathan Osborne, Erin O'Donoghue, Takeisha Wang, Danny Paulson, Mac Lee, Desmond Wang, Ty Lindeman, Duncan Yao, Wang Wen - Coach). Missing from photo: Kacey Tung, Adrianna Giuffre and Austin Bauer.
Nathan Osborne and Josephine Wu of Edmonton's Royal Glenora Club, each won gold in u17 doubles and mixed doubles. Osborne partnered Mac Lee in boys doubles, while Wu teamed up with Takeisha Wang in girls doubles, before partnering one another to win u17 mixed doubles. Osborne failed to earn the triple crown due in part to the strong play of fellow Canadian Duncan Yao of Vancouver, who captured the singles title with a 21-13, 21-17 victory. Lee had to settle for bronze in singles, losing to Yao in SF's. Danny Paulson of Calgary participated in his first international tournament, partnering Michael Wu of Vancouver, earning a bronze medal in doubles.
In u15 age division, Wang won bronze in girls singles and silver in mixed doubles with Ty Linderman. Lindeman and Austin Bauer of Calgary Winter Club lost their opening singles matches against opponents from Dominican Republic and USA respectively. They later won their first match in doubles before losing to the eventual gold medalists from USA, Hsia/Li 21-14, 21-18. Bauer teamed with Ontario's Jayme Carter in mixed, winning two rounds before losing to Lindeman/Wang in QF's.
The Glencoe's Kyleigh O'Donoghue earned silver in u17 girls doubles with Eileen Wong of Vancouver, and bronze in u17 girls singles.
Erin O'Donoghue of The Glencoe Club and Desmond Wang of the Royal Glenora Club had a strong showing in u13 division. O'Donoghue won gold in singles, and bronze in doubles with Kelly Carter and bronze in mixed with Wang. Meanwhile Wang lost a disappointing three game decision to No. 1 seed Shane Wilson of Jamaica and had to settle for silver. Wang and Nathan Lau of Ontario earned bronze in doubles.
Adrianna Giuffre of The Glencoe Club captured the gold medal in u19 mixed doubles along with Nyl Yakura of Toronto. Giuffre won her opening singles match before losing to Mariana Ugalde of Mexico 21-12, 21-13, who went on to win the event. Kacey Tung of The Glencoe Club lost her first round singles match against Camila Duany of Peru 17-21, 23-21, 21-15. Giuffre/Tung teamed up for girls doubles, winning their first round match against a Jamacia pairing before losing to Vicente/Vicente of Brazil 21-8, 21-13. Tung paired with Clinton Wong of Vancouver contested mixed doubles, winning a round before bowing out to Kuo/Li of USA.