2016 Trinidad and Tobago Nationals

The biggest tournament of the year and it wasn’t an international one, it was the Trinidad and Tobago national championships. This would be the 4^th time that I had played them and so far I had reached the final 2 of the past 3 times as well as won once the previous year 2015. This year would be slightly more pressure since I won the previous year, not to mention I was in all 3 finals, I would be expected to retain my title and capture another in another event. The last tournament that I played was Manhattan Beach International a few months back in February but it was now April and a while since I had been in that sort of environment. Regardless of that I had been training hard and preparing for this because I knew the second half of 2016 would be when I played the majority of my tournaments.

 

The photographer really liked to get pictures of me drinking water

Flying down to Trinidad is always straight forward and something that I have been doing for years. I fly united and go through Houston so it’s a full day affair leaving in the morning and arriving in the evening. Usually when traveling to an international I arrive 1-2 days before the tournament but when I play nationals I always try and arrive 4-5 days before so I can adapt and feel really comfortable on court. Although the tournament is held at my home club in Trinidad I don’t get to play on the courts other than the 1 week a year that I play nationals so it is nice to get that extra court time to readjust to the conditions down there. I am spoiled in Canada since we play and train in the perfect conditions which in reality you rarely every find outside at competitions. The previous year in 2015 I wasn’t seeded at all and that had been an issue to people as I was in the finals in 2014 and not seeded in 2015. This year I was 3^rd seed despite winning nationals the year before. That definitely raised questions to everybody down there, but in reality it’s whatever to me I don’t really care that much about seeding.

I left Calgary and arrived In Trinidad but that would not be the only trip I was taking this time. After playing nationals in Trinidad I would head out to Atlanta for a little relaxation and mini vacation. I would be spending about 12 days in Trinidad and then another 10 days in Atlanta being gone for almost a month. But back to Trinidad first and it was nice to have the heat hit me when I arrived. Calgary had an abnormally warm winter though without a lot of snow falling but nothing beats a tropical island in the Caribbean. Arriving was nothing new, get to the airport, grab something to eat, wait for my aunt to pick me up and then home we went. The first few days was nothing special I pretty much just played badminton at the CRISA arena in Chaguanas to familiarize myself to the courts and shuttle speed again. I was playing singles, doubles with Jason Ramjass, and mixed doubles with Kerian Quan Chee. My old mixed partner had gotten banned for a year and was unable to play nationals or play period at the time. Practice was done and the tournament was set to start, just 4 nights this year Wednesday through to Saturday night.

Funny faces are what I do best and frequently on court

Singles was up first and I played a slightly older recreational players who played for one of the oil companies, followed by the 2^nd round of singles that night where I played fellow club mate Alverio in which we had a fun match. That was the first night of action and there would be many more, not to mention newspaper articles as well. The second night consisted of another round of singles as well as a round of doubles and mixed. I played Sheraz another club mate in singles and then in doubles we had a fairly straightforward match and mixed was a lot closer as all of us on court were pretty similar skill. Day 2 done and was in all 3 semifinals.

 

More water bottle drinking pictures

So when the 2^nd last night rolled around I have to play a player named Will Lee who I had never played before but he traveled with us to CAREBACO last year and we sort of talked then. It was a match that went to 3 as I was actually nervous and played emotional badminton opposed to actual badminton. I was able to pull it off in the 3^rd thanks to Kerian and Naim for coaching me through it. That means that I was in the men’s singles final again. Men’s doubles didn’t go our way though and we ended up losing to Anil and Milind a German who married a Trinidadian girl and lives in Trinidad. He also won the other semi-final for men’s singles so I would play him in the finals, also he’s who Kerian and I beat first round in mixed. Mixed doubles saw us make the final as well when we beat Leanna and Jewel to advance. I was only in 2 finals this year, which was alright with me as can’t always get everything that I want.

During singles

Finals night, the night of all nights came around and I would be playing in the singles and mixed. Singles was up first and it would be against Milind Ogale a German citizen who is a resident of Trinidad and Tobago because he married a Trinidad woman. So you can imagine the newspaper headlines on that one, German Vs Canadian comes to mind. The match was pretty straight forward and there were no nerves this time to take it all the way and win my second national title in men’s singles.

Up next were the other matches and then the final match of the night, mixed doubles. Rahul had already won the men’s doubles final and now was going for title #2. Rahul and Stephanie had played together for years and this was the first time me and Kerian have played together despite being from the same club. The match went to 3 and unfortunately I would only be getting one national title this time in the singles.

So a 1^st place in singles, 2^nd place in mixed doubles, and 3^rd place in men’s doubles would be the medal haul for the 2016 nationals.

 

1st place mens singles, retained my title and 2 time national champion

 

2nd place in mixed for the 2nd year in a row

3rd place mens doubles

The previous year I flew out the morning right after I won nationals but this time I stayed an extra day. That extra day I celebrated in style a little winning another title we went out for dinner and then afterwards went to a club and lived it up, downside I flew out that next morning so the night was a little short lived. It would not be back home this time though, I would be making a stop over to Atlanta and spend just over a week there. A nice and well deserved vacation after winning nationals.

2014 Trinidad and Tobago National Championships

All the winners, runners up, and semifinalists at nationals

So the time came for the Trinidad and Tobago national championships to take place, April 22-27^th 2014. Of course I flew down to Trinidad to play in them. I had been in Richmond, Vancouver for almost 2 months at that point training hard so I was prepared to make a statement at nationals. This time I arrived in the country early so that I would have time to train and get use to the conditions as they are very very different that playing anywhere in Canada both shuttle speed and just facility wise too. The practice that we god before nationals was good and got to hit in the actual tournament venue a few times which was nice as it made me get more accustomed with things.

CRISTAR - Nationals venue and my clubs home

I have lots of supporters back home from fellow club mates, training partners, friends, relatives, and fans that were all excited to see me play in nationals. The previous year due to some unfortunate luck in the making of the draw I was put up against the winner of the tournament first round. This time he (Kerwin Pantin) was seeded 2^nd in the tournament and I was on the top half with the 1^st seed, he would be my 2^nd round match. So with all the practice done the time came around for matches to start on Tuesday April 22^nd in the night. They played 2 rounds that night and I was lucky enough to get the 1^st round to warm up it was a fairly easy game but I took the time to get accustomed with things. The 1^st seed didn’t have a first round as he had a bye, so I would be his first round match. So the time came that I would play Allister the first seed and everybody was paying attention to that match it seemed. It was a 3 game match and he played very well but in the end I came out on top and acquired a lot of new supporters because of it.

Giving a TV interview before the awards ceremony

I don’t live in Trinidad, I was born and raised Canadian but my mom was born and grew up in Trinidad and Tobago before moving to Canada. So through her I got my Trinidadian citizenship which allows me to compete for them internationally. Because of this I am not in the country much and just come home for nationals or the odd vacation. This means that the badminton players down there that are not from my club never really get to see me and my abilities until the championships roll around each year. This lead to quite the interesting newspaper headlines for me during the tournament, with each round that I progressed the titles got more and more interesting. I made it all the way to the singles final with some interesting matches on the way there. I went 3 games with the rest of my opponents as well not being able to adjust as quickly to the conditions. Overall things were good though and the players were quite fun to play against. In the semi-final match I played against my fellow club mate who was 2 points away from match point but I came back and won 5 points in a row to close out the game and take the match securing my spot in the finals.

Links to some of the online articles about me (they were also published in the local papers):

"Canadian shocks top seed"

|"Canadian reaches national semis"

"Canadian escapes again to reach national final"

I got a day to rest in-between the semifinals and the finals which would take place the Sunday night. I rested up as playing on the courts down there had taken a toll on my body and various parts of me were starting to hurt and be beyond sore. The day of rest did some good though I was able to go out to the zoo with one of my best friends and we had a great day together. That was something that I really needed to keep me grounded and not stressed/anxious. So finals came around and it was in classic finals style. One court, line judges, the full package. The news was there and some VIP’s were also in attendance from sponsors to past players, etc all there to watch the finals. This was not the first tournament final I have been in but this wasn’t just another provincial tournament in Alberta this was my countries nationals. Something that I wanted to win badly but also left me feeling nervous. I was up against the 2^nd seed Kerwin Pantin who had 6 national titles in singles behind him already. Last year the scores were decently close and this year things started off with a bang 1^st game I lost 19-21 and then it all went downhill from there. My body didn’t like me anymore didn’t want to cooperate with me at all, my mental fall apart and with it so did my game plan. fast forward I actually ended up messing up my inner hip and required about 3 weeks of recovery and rehab to fix it upon returning home. The 2^nd set wasn’t a pretty sight and it was pretty much just self-destruction that occurred and got the better of me. Kerwin played fantastic and did what he does, that’s the reason he is the national champion. So once again I had lost to him and would be the runner up at the 2014 Trinidad and Tobago National Championships.

Receiving my prize money and medal 

Mens singles (left to right): Semifinalists, Runner up (Me), Winner

My medal and winnings

That would mark the end of the nationals, I did play doubles and mixed but those unfortunately didn’t turn out as well. I made quarterfinals for both of those events eventually losing to the 1^st seeds. The experience was a great one and I am happy that I flew down to Trinidad and played in the championships. I had a great performance and would hope that it would have been enough to warrant my selection onto the commonwealth games team. The event would be happening the end of August in Glasgow, Scotland and was one of the things that I had been training hard for the past 4 years. Commonwealth is a mini Olympics for the Commonwealth countries and therefore something amazing to be able to attend. Flash forward a few months Trinidad unfortunately much to our demise did not send a badminton team to the Commonwealth games. I was heartbroken and most of the other players from Trinidad were also feeling the pain of not getting to go either.

Farewell and victory dinner with my club mates

That was the end of my trip to Trinidad though, short and sweet I really didn’t get to do much else other than see the zoo and hang out a lot with Shannon. Because I made it so far in the tournament I was unable to make a trip to the beach which I am so sad about. The last time I was on the beach and swam in the ocean was May 2013 in Tahiti, French Polynesia while I was there for a tournament. I packed things up and got ready to head back home, but first I would be making a quick stop (3 days) in Calgary before going back to Vancouver and back to training to prepare for upcoming international tournaments; Argentina International and Venezuela International. 

Zoo with Shannon

Shannon, me, and the giraffes