Badminton club plays tournaments

Five athletes from the Stephenville Junior Badminton Club competed in the Atlantic Junior Elite Series tournament and the Canadian Black Knight Under 14 Open badminton tournament from Nov. 28 to 30 in Moncton, NB.

The five athletes selected to represent the Province were all based in the Stephenville Junior Badminton Club and coached by Mike Alexander. They were:

Bryan Downey - Under 19 Division; William Forsey - Under 16 Division; Dillan Pearce - Under 16 Division; Emily Alexander - Under 14 Division; Jillian Forsey - Under 14 Division.

The athletes selected have all competed in badminton at the top provincial and Atlantic levels in the past. These athletes have also been identified as potential candidates for the Canada Games to be held in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2011.

Canadian Black Knight - Under 14 results

Girl's Singles: #1 Seeded Emily Alexander defeated #2 Seeded Maggie Gunter (NB) 21-18, 21-13 to win a gold medal. Jillian Forsey finished in the top 8 (quarter finals) after losing a hard fought match to Sneha Desai (NB) 21-16, 21-13.

Girl's Doubles: #2 Seeded Emily Alexander and Jillian Forsey defeated Maggie Gunter and Jenny Wang (NB) 28-26, 21-7 to capture the gold medal.

Mixed Doubles: Jillian Forsey and Kevin Stadnyk (NS) defeated Alex Rice Hoyt and Jenny Wang (NB) to capture the bronze medal.

The Under 14 event was the provincial team's best chance to medal in the weekend competitions and the results demonstrated that the Newfoundland girls are second to none in Atlantic Canada.

Canadian Junior Elite Series - Under 16 events

Boy's Singles: William Forsey advanced two rounds to finish in the top 16 before being defeated by 5/8 Seed David Chan (ON) who went on to win the boy's singles title. Dillan Pearce advanced as far as the semi finals of the boy's singles consolation.

Boy's Doubles: William Forsey and Dillan Pearce advanced two rounds to finish in the top eight (quarter finals) before being defeated by 3/4 Seeded David Chan and Aaron Lam (ON) who were the eventual silver medalists.

Canadian Junior Elite Series - Under 19 events

Boy's Singles: Bryan Downey advanced two rounds to finish in the top 16 before being defeated by 5/8 Seed Olivier Trudeau (QC).

Boy's Doubles: Bryan Downey and Patrick Thompson (PEI) advanced two rounds to the Quarter Finals (top 8) before being defeated by #1 Seeded Timothy Lam and Nathan Lee (ON).

Mixed Doubles: Bryan Downey and Jennifer Medeiros (NS) advanced two rounds to the Quarter Finals (top 8) before being defeated by #2 Seeded Francis Deragon-Jean and Stephanie Pakenham (QC).

Although the Under 16/19 athletes did not medal at this competition, they performed very well and demonstrated through their results that they are in the top tier of skill for the Atlantic region.

An added bonus of the weekend was that a Senior National Open was held at the same venue, so the Junior athletes were able to meet and watch some of the top adults in the country compete (such as Andrew Dabeka - an Olympian who represented Canada at the Summer Olympics in Beijing this past summer).

This event was made possible because of the hard work of the athletes (in both their training and preparation and in fund raising activities), the support of their family and friends, and the support of local businesses and organizations.