No league, no problem.
The Vancouver Island University Mariners badminton team had a fine finish to what might have shaped up as a challenging 2016-17 season.
The M’s won three medals at the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association championships in Toronto earlier this month. Graydon Robb took silver in singles, Helen Cheung earned bronze in singles and Robert Foster and James Qiu teamed up for bronze in doubles.
“You never know how strong you are, comparatively, until you get there, but we knew that we had some medal contenders,” said Janice Walker, VIU coach. “Our players were very, very competitive at nationals and coming home with three medals out of five [events] is phenomenal.”
VIU didn’t exactly have a league this season after the Pacific Western Athletic Association eliminated badminton from its offerings. But VIU athletics continued with the sport and the Mariners played a competitive tournament schedule, playing against programs such as UBC and Simon Fraser University.
At CCAA championships, the Mariners represented both their school and province.
Robb lost 25-11, 25-15 in the final to Nicky Aung. In the semis, Robb avenged a loss from last year’s nationals at VIU, defeating Owen Kurvitz 17-21, 23-21, 21-18.
“Graydon plays such an attacking game, so quick and always creating that opportunity to get on top of the bird,” Walker said.
Cheung won her bronze-medal match decisively, beating Ryo Kuramochi 21-12, 21-8.
Walker said Cheung has great skills but was an up-and-down player during the season.
“She found that consistency. She was so focused,” the coach said.
Foster and Qiu were right there with the best teams at the tournament after peaking at the right time this season. The beat Raman Kumar and Azam Mohammad 21-19, 18-21, 21-14 in the bronze-medal match.
“It was really awesome to watch these guys,” Walker said. “They just kept getting better from a month before nationals and continuing right through the tournament, they just kept improving with every game.”
VIU’s Melissa Liew went into nationals as a strong medal hopeful in mixed doubles, but her partner Chris Wan got hurt and though he played through the injury, he was noticeably slowed, Walker said.
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