Nearly 40 Junior badminton players competed here in Terrace at the Thornhill Junior Secondary gym on Saturday, Nov. 24 for the annual junior badminton tournament.
Players hailing from Terrace, Kitimat, Prince Rupert—with one exchange student from Quebec—took to the court, with some of Terrace’s most promising young athletes working their way to the top of the tournament with multiple wins.
The popular badminton program has group practices twice a week, and a handful of tournaments a year.
The junior program has been hosting tournaments for about half a decade, but the adults program has been around for much, much longer.
In this year’s junior tournament, matches were played in age categories between U10 and U16. For singles play, Levi Kroeker of Terrace took the U10 boys division.
And Prince Rupert’s Jordan Truong was first in the U12.
Centennial Christian School’s Evan Veldman of Terrace took first place in U 14 boys.
While Jake Blix of Terrace was first place in the U16 category.
For the girls, Leah Julseth of Terrace took the U10/12 top spot.
And Leona Truong travelled from Prince Rupert to take first in the U16 division.
For doubles, Braden Clunas and Levi Kroeker, both of Terrace, were the winners in the U10 division.
And the team of Logan Clunas and Garic Hill, also both of Terrace, were first in the U12 boys meet.
Terrace’s Leah Julseth and Sarah Kroeker took the win for the U12 girls.
And Lucas Mantel and Evan Veldman of Terrace were first in the U14 boys.
In the U16 girls, Michaela Julseth and Brianna Weir of Terrace took the top spot.
Jake Blix, who also won first place in the U16 Singles category, and partner Roxanne Plante, a Terrace/Quebec exchange student, won the U16 mixed doubles.
Plante, who played badminton in her hometown, was here in Terrace for three months, and left last Friday to travel back to Quebec.
The adult badminton program held a tournament last weekend– look for those results in next week’s paper.
The club runs from September to April, where it rounds off the season with a combined juniors and adults tournament that sees many attend.
