The Douglas College Royals are gunning for a sixth B.C. college provincial team badminton title, and where better else to do it than at home.
Beginning Saturday, the Douglas David Lam campus will be the place to be for the finest in B.C. college badminton.
The Royals are the No. 1 nationally ranked team in the country. They can expect to be pushed by No. 5 overall Kwantlen Polytechnical University and No. 9 Thompson Rivers University.
Two other BCCAA schools, Langara College and Vancouver Island University are also ranked in the top 15. Capilano University is also scheduled to take part in the six-team competition.
“Two years ago we knew we were going to win four of five awards, we were seeded second, but won the provincials with a clean sweep. This year, yeah, I’d say the men’s doubles is where the landmine is. Anything could happen,” Douglas head coach Al Mawani said, adding both Langara and Kwantlen are formidable opponents in the men’s doubles.
Douglas is all but assured of the women’s singles and doubles titles.
Current Canadian college female badminton player of the month, RuiLin Huang, has yet to lose an individual match in three seasons at Douglas.
Huang, who will contest the women’s singles, is on a 36-game winning streak in provincial play and has lost just once, in team competition at the national level, giving the Burnaby athlete a record streak of more than 50 individual wins during her college career.
Douglas’s doubles pairing of Melody Liang and Stephanie Ko are equally as tough to beat. Liang is hoping for a fifth consecutive national doubles title, while Ko has shared in the last three. Both Liang and Ko will graduate from Douglas at the end of the school year.
Darren Hong, who teamed with Douglas graduate Alvin Lau for a silver in men’s doubles at the 2010 nationals, will look to return to the nationals in doubles, this time with freshman Rey Wei as his partner.
“I’m hoping Darren’s experience and four years of playing competitively on the national circuit brings a calmness to the team and leads us through,” Mawani said.
Darren Cho will contest the mixed doubles with teammate Amy Leung at the provincials. Leung is a former national silver medallist in mixed doubles for Douglas.
Douglas will not contest the men’s singles competition.
“This is where the fun is. It’s fun. It’s a challenge to get your team above the others,” Mawani added.
The team event will run all day Saturday at the Lam campus in Coquitlam, beginning at 10:30 a.m. and running until about 5:30 p.m. Douglas has won the past five provincial team banners at the B.C. college championships.
Individual round-robin events will take the stage on Sunday, starting at 9 a.m. with a probable finish time of 3 p.m.
The top two seeded teams, Douglas and Kwantlen, will meet each other in all five disciplines at the end of the draw.
The winners of each singles and doubles events will earn an individual berth to the CCAA nationals at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick March 3 to 5. The provincial runner-up in each division will also earn a wildcard to Sackville, N.B.
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