Richmond rules the badminton courts

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This article was published 21/05/2019 (2321 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With a fourth consecutive provincial high school badminton championship, Fort Richmond Collegiate continues to solidify its dominion.

The school’s varsity badminton team won the AAA/AAAA aggregate title on May 4 in Thompson, Man., finishing the tournament with 39 points and two individual gold medal performances.

In boys’ doubles, Grade 11 partners Ruihao Li and Sehaj Ghotra defeated Stephen Cheng and Anthony Tan of Vincent Massey Collegiate, 21-14 and 21-17, in the final.

The duo went through the round-robin undefeated but were forced to battle through the playoffs, where they were pushed to three games in the semifinal.

“We were not really expecting to win,” said Li, 17. “However, we grinded and we came first.”

“It feels pretty good,” Ghotra said. “It’s a big accomplishment.”

Ghotra said that, ahead of the provincial competition, there were a few growing pains associated with the move from club competition to high school.

“It was hard to adapt with the plastic birds because at club level it’s feather birds,” Ghotra said. “So I had to come to more practices and work on my serves.”

“It was a big adjustment for both of us,” Li added.

The pair also play together at the Winnipeg Winter Club and have about a year of experience as partners. They say their style of attack is complimentary, with Ghotra hanging back until there’s an opportunity to make a smash, and Li bringing an aggressive offence.

The two athletes said they’re already looking forward to next year.

“I’d like to thank my coaches for making me come to the practices,” Ghotra said.

“Work hard and come back stronger next year,” Li added.

Jeannette Ding, a Grade 12 student-athlete, made the switch back to singles in her final year of competition.

She already had two provincial gold medals in girls’ doubles from the 2018 and 2017 championships, and a silver medal in singles from her freshman year.

Ding also competes with the Winnipeg Winter Club and represented Manitoba at the Canada Winter Games.

At the provincial championship, Ding, 18, went undefeated in round-robin play and cruised through the playoffs, defeating  Emalia Sinclair from Warren Collegiate 21-7 and 21-18 in the final.

“It feels good to have hard work pay off for provincial level badminton,” Ding said. “I feel really accomplished and I’ve been training really hard recently.”

FRC’s Ethan Chan finished second in boys’ singles competition at the junior varsity championships, held the same weekend in Winkler, Man.  

This year’s team was coached by Keith Redfern and Fort Richmond Collegiate alumni Tiffany Tantakoun and Arnish Patel.

Redfern said badminton is serious business at FRC and ahead of provincials, athletes were training five days a week.

“I was really impressed with how many categories we were able to fill to go to provincials, and the improvements of some the girls and guys… they improved dramatically,” Redfern said.

“Seeing them come to every single practice and seeing them work really hard definitely pays off in the end,” Tantakoun added.