2016 Columbia International Nevia, Columbia

This would be the last tournament for a month and a bit but at this point I at least had a week off after 3 in a row. Now it was time to go to Columbia for the Columbia International, my 7^th tournament for the year and 3^rd tournament with Matt for doubles. This was in yet another little city and not one of the main ones so it meant quite a few flights to get there, 3 to be exact. After arriving into Bogota in the early hours of the morning we had to take a small propeller plane at sunrise to the city of Nevia which was where this edition of the tournament was being held. On arrival we were picked up at the airport which was actually a surprise for me since in South America if you get picked up by the tournament can be a hit or miss. Checking into the hotel we noticed that we were in fact in the center of the city but there actually wasn’t much around in terms of food. The hotel itself was relatively nice and it had a roof top where you could have a 360 degree view of the city.

 

Our hotel, pretty much in the middle of the town

The same day that we arrived we were able to go to the tournament hall and get some practice in, the tournament would start 2 days later. We were fortunate to have a good amount of time to practice in the hall and believe me when I say it was much needed. The venue was in the top 5 for worst venues that I have played in and of course all of them have been in the Pan Am region mainly the Caribbean and South America. This was an open air facility aka there was slits in the wall for air/wind to come through as well as giant open areas so there was a lot of wind and weird drafts. The lighting wasn’t the best but all these holes also allowed for the sunlight to come through and create massive blind spots on the court.

 

The open air venue that we would be playing in

For this tournament I was first seed in singles and we were 2^nd seed for doubles, Guatemala made up the majority of the other seeds for the tournament. Due to this when Matt and I were practicing there was a lot of Columbian players around who pretty much stopped what they were doing and started to watch me practice. It was humbling and made me nervous at the same time as I’m usually the one watching the top players practice when I go to these big tournaments but this time the roles were reversed and I was being watched. It was a different feeling, one that I have only felt a handful of times like in Tahiti back in 2013 when I had lots of fans cheering for me as I won round after round. Aside from this we were able to get some good practice in at the main hall and it would be crucial because as I said before this was an open air huge facility which was definitely not designed or made for badminton in mind.

 

The matches were scheduled to start with singles occurring first, I had a local Columbian player as my first match in single and the same for doubles. The first match went rather smoothly with me getting a feel for the player as well as the venue. The courts were taped out onto the floor and the draft was an interesting one changing every few seconds. I was able to stay on top and made it through my first round with a win, that would be all for the day and with a win I was into the quarterfinals since I had a bye first round. For doubles Matt and I had only played 3 tournaments together and were still coming together as a pair, figuring out what the other does and how we work best together. We had a bye and then would play against a local Columbian pair.

 

Courtside view of the facility, can you spot the badminton lines? Yeah it was really hard to see the duct tape courts.

The next day was both singles and doubles with singles being up first. I had another local player and this time it was a lot easier as I was more use to the courts and just played my game moving him around playing a consistency based match. I won my match with ease and was onto the semifinals in singles. But before all was over there was a doubles match to be played with Matt. This match was not as easy as we wanted, it was a match that would go to 3 games with us winning the 2 games that we did fairly easy yet losing one very close. It was a weird situation yet one that we came back from as a pair adding yet another win to our partnership. This marked the 2^nd semi-final that I would be in for the tournament. Now it meant back to the hotel to rest up and prepare for the following day. In both semifinals I would be playing against Guatemala, singles would be against Rodolfo Ramierz who I previously played at the Pan Am Championships in Lima, Peru back in 2012. In doubles we would be playing Ruban Castellaons and his partner Anibal Marroquin for the opportunity to go to the finals, I have yet to play them in doubles but had played Ruban in singles at the recently concluded US Open.

 

Setting up for the prize giving ceremony.

Semifinals day came and as always it was very windy in the venue. Singles was up first against Rodolfo and it was a tough match, nothing went my way I tried to force too many things and ended up losing due to my errors. This was not the way I wanted to start my first semi-final appearance in an international tournament. I would definitely be wanting to redeem myself in the doubles which would happen in a little while. Matt and I played good together, we were coming together as a pair and this time there was no go again, we lost the doubles semi-final but it was a close match just missing out on the win 18-21, 19-21. We were sad but happy in a way, that meant that I would get two bronze medals at the Columbia international which I was pretty happy about in that regard. Matt would however leave that night as opposed to staying for the medal ceremony the following day. Seeing as how these were the first international medals I would win for the year (aside from the team bronze medal at CAREBACO in Aruba a month prior) I wanted to stay and get my pictures on the podium with my medals as well as collect my prize money.

 

On the podium for men's singles, the other 3 players were all from Guatemala.

The finals day came and I went with everybody as there was only 1 bus there in the morning and then 1 bus back. Up till this point I hadn’t really talked with any other players at the tournament, not because I was antisocial but it just didn’t come up I would play and then leave. This time I sat in the stands and was approached by some of the local Columbian athletes playing and they spoke decent and enough English to have a conversation. So we watched the matches and talked about lots of stuff, they asked about my travels and we talked about school, badminton, etc. There was a substantial amount of wind though during the finals and that was noticeable by the flags that were courtside during the whole tournament. You could see them blowing in the wind as if they were outside just waving back and forth. Finally the finals finished and it was time for the medal ceremony. They brought out the podium and started to do them event by event. I had my name called and went up for doubles first followed by going up for singles to claim my second bronze medal. It felt great to be standing on the podium to receive a medal not only for me but for my country too. Afterwards we took some pictures of everyone followed by the awarding of prize money to the athletes which I got in both singles and doubles.

 

Got some medals and prize money too. Not bad for a few days work.

Now that was the tournament but we haven’t covered Columbia as a whole yet. I decided to write this blog post a little different and get the tournament out of the way and then discuss the exploration of the small town in Columbia. We were not in the capital of Bogata instead we were in the small town to the south about a 2 hour flight away called Nevia. It was a beautiful smaller town with a main river running through it and a small population. Their downtown wasn’t anything fancy but they did have a university and some other big buildings just nothing overly big. Across from our hotel was a large plaza which was always full of people and vendors selling anything and everything. Down the street was the same a slightly smaller plaza that was surrounded primarily by grocery stores and shops. Beside our hotel was also a church which I did venture into and took a look around, it was rather big and definitely stood out in the city.

 

Plaza under the trees across from our hotel, always looked like shady deals were going down

The big church beside our hotel.

Contrary to popular belief I didn't burst into flames upon entering.

Around our plaza at night the side streets or allies would be turned into a market with the entire street being taken up by more stalls/carts catering to anything you could every need. Finding food was actually on the challenging side as there wasn’t many food places directly around us. There was a burger place in the plaza opposite the hotel which I ended up eating most of my meals at. One day though we ventured up the street a ways and were able to find a bunch of restaurants none of which were open for lunch though. There was a Chinese place which Matt and I sat down and ate at and the food was great not to mention a large enough portion that I had food left over for dinner that night too. Aside from that most of the meals were eaten across the street at the burger place where the chicken breast burger was very delicious and filling for a fair price.

 

The side stress at night, set up with temporary shops selling anything and everything.

As for exploring there wasn’t a lot of stuff to see, walking down towards the river lead to some nice scenery and a fantastic statue which you would never guess a place like that had. It was hard to get a good picture of it though due to the lighting. I did miss seeing one thing though it was a giant head which you could climb up into and look out from. I didn’t venture far enough along the river to see it. Aside from some other plazas and statues there wasn’t anything crazy notable unlike the waterfalls and the dam in Brazil.

 

 

Finally though the string of tournaments had come to an end, I could go home for a month and not have to travel. As weird as that sounds to people, who would have thought but it’s true I’m travelling for competitions and not for pleasure. But not only that, for each trip I went back home to Calgary and then back out. That was 4 round trip flights from Calgary to the Caribbean (Aruba), South America (Brazil), North/Central America (Mexico), and back to South America (Columbia). I had gone through the Houston International airport 7 times with the exception of my flight to Brazil going through Chicago’s international airport. On top of this I had already acquired gold status with united and gold status with star alliance so that would make all my future flights even better with all the perks and upgrades. But alas was time to catch my small prop plane back to Bogota and then fly home for some much needed rest.   

 

2016 Mexico International Guadalajara, Mexico

Just like that my time in my own bed was over and it was back into the air to fly away again. Thankfully this time it wasn’t too far and was still on the same continent. Mexico was the destination this time, Guadalajara to be exact. Originally the tournament was scheduled to take place in Cancun but just 20 days before the tournament they changed the location, thankfully I didn’t book my flight yet at that point. Cancun would have been a fantastic place, beach and everything but the location change was beneficial as a bunch of players withdrew due to it. The singles draw was just a 32 size while the doubles draw ended up being a 16 size draw but there was less than 8 teams present which usually would not award any world ranking points. Due to the discretion of the tournament referee he choose to leave the withdrawn doubles pairs in the draw therefore having it more than 8 teams and awarding world ranking points.

 

Being in Mexico for so few days I didn't need much cash

But first before we even get to the tournament it was the matter of flying there. I would once again be going through Houston airport. Matt would have the same route but we would be arriving on different flights, I got in around 8pm and Matt arrived just after midnight. So I waited in the airport for him this way I wouldn’t have to taxi by myself, I did send in a transportation request though but when I landed there wasn’t anybody around to pick me up. So I was waiting for matt for sure. We made it to the hotel in one piece but it was super late already so being able to crash into bed was greatly appreciated. Not that it was super long flights I had to endure but just cumulative it was a lot of travel already and taking a toll on my body.

 

The tournament venue was set up really well

This is the unfortunate blog entry because I really didn’t see much in Mexico I was just in Guadalajara for a grand total of 3 days. But first things first the following day we were able to head to the hall and practice and the set up wasn’t bad. For an international series it was comparable to Brazil the week before, of course Brazil was better but Mexico was in the right direction. The venue itself was good no windows, there was a drift but not the end of the world like in other venues. We used the practice courts behind the main courts at first and then eventually we had our time on the main courts later. So feeling decent about playing there the draws were changed for singles due to the withdrawal of players. I had a bye then a local Mexican for my first round followed by Hock Lai Lee of USA, which was not the most ideal match. But I would worry about that the following day when the tournament started, Matt had a local Mexican first round too.

 

First day of competition kicked off and it went really well, I played against a junior and won my match fairly easily. It was the only match that I would have for the day and I was feeling good about playing Hock the following day as well as doubles. When the second day rolled around I played singles in the morning and boy was that quite the adventure it was a tough match against a good player. Hock use to play under the Malaysian flag and trained with current world #1 and 3 time Olympic silver medalist Lee Chong Wei. It was an uphill battle the whole way as he just had so much more experience than me and was able to read the game so well as to what I was going to play. We did have some good rallies and it was always when I was able to rally him I would win the point. It was not the match that I wanted, if I would have won that I would have made a semi-final and gotten a medal which would have been nice. But alas it was not meant to be that day and I lost, I would have to regroup fast though as we had doubles shortly afterwards.

 

Doubles came around and that was quite the matchup, we would play both the players we played in singles. It was quite the battle with both me and Matt making lots of mistakes and letting the youngsters score lots of points against us which isn’t what we would have liked. 3 games in and it wasn’t our day either, 3^rd tournament for world championships qualifications and we had a disappointing loss in the semifinals. After that happened we were scheduled to leave the next day back to Canada and USA respectively but we decided to try and leave that same night. I had just acquired gold status with united which also gave me star alliance gold status to. This being said we were able to fly on standby and were successful getting through to our destinations a whole day early.

But aside from the tournament I didn’t see much at all in the city. There was a plaza not more than a few blocks away from us but I was so busy that I didn’t get time to go over and fully explore it. Just the quick stroll down the street as we went to find food to eat. There was a giant Guadalajara sign in the plaza though that I would have really liked to get a picture with but that didn’t happen. This just happened to be one of those times where I only saw the airport, hotel, and tournament venue. The real life of a professional athlete not always getting to see the city I’m in or explore. Some things that people always get jealous of me for getting to do or so they think that I get to do. But the truth is most of the time I’m in completion mode and my schedule can be quite packed with training and matches. Usually I will get one day though to at least go out into the city and try and see as much as I can.

 

I don't even have a cool shot of anything, just this random street in Mexico

3 tournaments in a row done for me and just one more left. A week back home in Calgary and then it would be off to Nevia, Columbia for the Columbia International. I was already starting to see negative effects of so much travelling. I had been living out of hotels for 3 weeks and not always able to eat the same quantity or quality of food that I am accustomed to at home. Not to mention all the flying back and forth from each destination. My body was starting to break down and muscle mass deteriorated. But to sleep in my own bed for a week is definitely something I was looking forward to at the time. Thankfully it was a quick flight home just to Houston with a short layover and then straight to Calgary. Something that doesn’t happen much having either a long flight 6+ hours or long layovers 5+ in the airport. At least now I could go into the star alliance airline lounges. But this trip to Guadalajara I didn’t see anything. Hopefully the next tournament in Columbia I would get to venture out and explore the city.