Ooks are golden
March 8, 2009
For the second year in a row the NAIT Ooks badminton team has captured a pair of gold medals at the 2009 Canadian Colleges Athletic Association national championship at Humber College in Toronto, Ontario.
Reigning national champion Dan Kai successfully defended his national men's single title against Shawn Zhang of Douglas College of the British Columbia Colleges Athletic Association in two sets (21-19, 21-17). The native of Xi'AN, China showed tremendous composure in the match against Zhang, who had previously pushed Kai to three sets in their round robin match-up.
"The coaches and players are so proud of Dan," said head coach Jordan Richey. "Defending your national title at this level is a tremendous achievement and shows just how talented of a player he is and how tough he is mentally."
"His final match against Shawn Zhang was at such a high level. It was very comparable to last year's final [against Kiran Bogavelli of Capilano College]."
NAIT's mixed doubles pairing of Joey Vandervet and Sinead Cheah also won a gold medal against Douglas College's duo of Andy Cheung and Amy Leung in two sets (21-11, 21-15). This was the second CCAA mixed gold for NAIT, the first was in 1993 by the tandem of Cory Morse and Karen Marner.
"I was quite surprised that in their first year, and at such a young age, they were able to win gold," said Richey, "but pleasantly surprised. This was a great way to cap off their first year playing at the college level."
The Ooks also took home silver and bronze in women's singles. Ogul Kaltakci upset her teammate and defending women's singles champion Yang Sun in their semi-final match in three sets (21-10, 15-21, 21-18). Sun had previously defeated Kaltakci in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference provincial championship.
Kaltakci lost in the gold medal match to Douglas College's Lynn Haung in two sets (21-8, 21-10), while Sun defeated former NAIT Ook Karen Ng, now at Georgian College in two sets (21-15, 21-14) in the bronze medal match. Ng played at NAIT for two years from 2005-07.
"Ogul's mindset going in to the tournament was that she could beat anybody, including Yang Sun, who she's lost to all year," said Richey. "Every time the two played, Ogul got closer and closer to victory and in her mind there wasn't anybody at nationals that could beat her.
"She came up against a world class competitor in the final and put in a great effort."
Kaltakci was the only player not seeded first or second after the round robin to reach a championship match. She was seeded third after a 3-2 record in the round robin, including a three set loss to Sun.
NAIT's other mixed doubles team of Jonathan Chang and Natalie Neumann lost in the bronze medal match to Mike Del Fante and Kayla Odorizzi of the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association's Cambrian College in two sets (21-10, 21-15).
"I feel bad for Jon and Natalie because they wanted it more than anyone else," said Richey. "We expect them both back next year though. After building upon their experience at Humber, I think they'll have a strong chance to win a medal at next year's nationals."
Only NAIT and Douglas College captured gold medals this year, with NAIT winning the men's singles and mixed doubles titles, while Douglas took home the women's singles and both the men's and women's doubles titles.
Douglas College captured the team championship with the top overall record in the round robin.
All the members of team BCCAA and team ACAC qualified for the gold medal matches except for Kaltakci who qualified from the ACAC wild-card team.
NAIT will host the 2010 CCAA national championship. NAIT has hosted three times previously, the last in 2002.
"We're very excited to be hosting nationals next year," said Richey. "It will be tough to top Humber, as they hosted the best nationals I've ever seen, but I'm confident that the NAIT staff will be able to put on a first class event.
"We're getting closer and closer to surpassing Douglas and it would be unbelievable if we could do that next year at home and win the team championship."