PACWEST

Luke Couture had an impressive and exceptional finish at this weekends PACWEST Badminton Provincial Championships hosted by TRU. The weekend started with the team event on Saturday. Couture made tremendous contributions in the event to help his team secure a BRONZE medal finish, coming in close to beat 2nd team Capilano in a 3-way-tie.

In the individual event on Sunday, Luke was determined to dominate in his event, having lost to top seed Bob Sharma at the Douglas tournament in January placing 2nd. It has been a battle in Men’s Singles between the Royal and Falcon all season. In his first match against Mariner Bryan Cassels, Couture claimed his first win of the day in 3 sets 21-19, 12-21, 21-14. Not letting the 3 setter disappoint, he then went to beat TRU Wolfpack Joey Chu in 2 sets 21-14, 21-13. In his 3rd round, Luke went on to beat Eagles David Dryden convincingly 21-8, 21-8. On a winning streak, Luke then faced Capilano's James Huumo, beating him 21-7, 21-10. With victory on his side Luke was mentally prepared to grasp Championship Gold against rivalry Bob Sharma, a Douglas Royal. His determination and perseverance led him to beat Sharma in 3 hard fought sets winning 21-14, 19-21, 21-19. His hard work and dedication has earned him a golden ticket to represent BC at the upcoming CCAA National Badminton Championships at Thompson Rivers University in March.

RuiLin Huang is in her 4th year at Douglas College and currently enrolled in the Business Management program. After missing the PACWEST Tournament #2, Huang returned to the Royals line-up and continued her winning streak by winning the Women's Singles and Doubles. She would finish the weekend with a perfect 13 Wins and 0 Losses.   Huang now extends her season winning streak to a perfect 26 Wins and 0 Losses has won all 4 events she has entered this season.   "It was nice to have RuiLin back to lead our team on court" commented Royals head coach Al Mawani.    Huang has now won 28 straight PACWEST Events in her career - without a loss.

Originally from India, Bob Sharma is in his first year at Douglas College and currently enrolled in the Communications Program. This past weekend, Sharma led the Royals to victory in the team competition with a perfect 5-0.   He then continued his fine play on Saturday by finishing 8-0 to win the Men's Singles and Men's Doubles events.   Sharma won his first event of the season by defeating Luke Couture, the #1 seed from Langara College in a thrilling 3 game final.   After recovering from the singles final Sharma teamed up with Logan Campbell to win the Men's Doubles event to give him his 2nd event win of the season and a perfect 13 Wins and 0 Losses for the weekend.   "The singles was a fantastic win for Bob as he has worked very hard the past 8 weeks and deserves the results" commented Royals coach Al Mawani, "He has learnt the benefits of training hard every training session".

This past weekend, Yeung helped the Royals badminton team extend their lead at the top of the PACWEST standings by going 5-0 in the team competition and following that with an 8-0 record in the individual competition.

In Team competition, Yeung participated in both women’s singles and women’s doubles.  In Round 1 Yeung defeated Kwantlen’s Christine Lin 21-6, 21-6 in women’s singles. In Round 2 she teamed up with Liza Chen to defeat VIU 21-3, 21-3.  Round 3 saw her return to women’s singles where she defeated Capilano’s Bischoff 21-6, 21-7. Round 4 she again teamed up with Liza Chen to defeat TRU 21-8, 21-9. In the 5th and final round of team play, Yeung teamed up with Liza Chen to defeat Langara 21-2, 21-8.

In the Individual competition, Yeung entered both the Mixed Doubles and Women’s Singles events. In Women’s Singles, Yeung made it to the finals where she defeated Capilano’s Veronica Yeung 21-14, 20-22, 21-17. In Mixed Doubles, Yeung teamed up with Logan Campbell to defeat Capilano’s Kayzs Tamasauskas and Rosalyn Chong in a hard fought match, 22-20, 27-25 to take 1st Place.

Yeung has a two tournament perfect 26-0 record and has won all 4 events she has entered this season.   "Charmagne has quickly become our team leader and hardest worker and it's a pleasure to have her back" commented Royals head coach Al Mawani.  “Charmagne was recently named team captain for the Douglas College Royals”. 

Luke Couture enters the PACWEST Badminton Tournament #2 with a determination to dominate in his Singles event. In last months first PACWEST Tournament held at VIU, Couture finished 2nd in the Individual event, losing to Douglas’ Luo Wei. In the team event, he helped to lead his team to a 2nd place finish.

This past weekend, Couture competed in men’s singles in the team portion of the competition, finishing with a 4-1 record. In Round 1 vs TRU’s Dave Babichuk, Couture would win 23-21, 21-9. In Round 2 vs Capilano, Couture defeated David Khuong 21-7, 21-4. Round 3 saw another victory as Couture defeated David Dryden of Kwantlen. Round 4, Couture defeated Martin Haaf of VIU but it was Round 5 where Couture sputtered, losing to Douglas’ Bob Sharma with a score of 21-15, 18-21, 21-9.

Having lost to top player Bob Sharma from Douglas in 3 sets in the team event, Couture was eager to dominate in the individual event. Couture made it out of the Round Robin portion on the individual event where he once again faced Bob Sharma of Douglas in the Semi-finals. Couture would defeat Sharma in 2 sets, 21-18, 21-12. Having obtained his goal, Couture then met Kazys Tamasaukas from Capilano in the Finals winning his first event of the season, defeating Kazys 21-15, 21-18.

Yeung is in her 4th year at Douglas College and in the professional writing program has re-joined the team after a 3 year absence. In her 1st tournament back, Yeung continued just where she left off by dominating the Women’s Doubles & Mixed Doubles events. This past weekend at VIU she played a leading role in helping Douglas College’s unbeaten result in the team round robin competition by winning all 5 of her matches.  In Round 1 vs VIU, Yeung and Chen entered women’s doubles, easily defeated the Mariner pair of Bonar and Greene, 21-0, 21-1. In Round 2 vs Capilano, Yeung joined Logan Campbell in the mixed doubles event. The pair defeated Capilano’s Eddie Lai and Lindsay Tong 21-9, 21-9. In Round 3 vs TRU, Wei teamed up again with Campbell in mixed doubles to defeat the TRU pair of Nguyen and Mertens 21-10, 21-8. In Round 4 vs Langara, Yeung was moved back to women’s doubles where she teamed up with Chen to easily defeat the Lanagara pair of Young and Liang, 21-2, 21-6. In the 5th and final round vs Kwantlen, Yeung and Campbell entered mixed doubles, defeating Kwantlen’s Dryden and Chau 21-10, 21-6.

On Sunday Yeung entered and won the Women’s Doubles event and Mixed Doubles.

In Women’s Doubles, Yeung and partner RuiLin Huang advanced out of their pool by defeating the Langara and Kwantlen doubles pairs. In the Semi-Finals, Yeung and Huang defeated Mertens and Lidster of TRU 21-3, 21-6 to move into the Finals where they would play the Capilano pair of Chong and Yeung. Yeung and Huang would defeat Capilano 21-13, 21-15 to take 1st place.

In Mixed Doubles, Yeung teamed up with Logan Campbell to advance out of their pool defeating VIU and TRU. In the Semi-Finals, Yeung and Campbell defeated Kwantlen’s Kwee and Simard 21-12, 21-11.  In the Finals, the pair played and defeated the Capilano pair of Tamasauskas and Chong winning the match 21-12, 21-5.

Yeung played the maximum number of matches this past weekend and finished with a 13-0 record.  Yeung continues to work hard to recover her form of 3 years ago where she won 3 CCAA national titles.

Rey Wei is in his 2nd year at Douglas College and continues to play a key role for the Royals. The Team Event was played on Friday and Saturday. Wei went undefeated in all 5 of his matches in the Team portion of Tournament #1. In Round 1 vs VIU, Wei was entered in men’s doubles with Logan Campbell defeating the host Cassels & Thompson of VIU 21-12, 21-18. In Round 2 vs Capilano, Wei was again entered in men’s doubles, this time with Simon Wu. Wei and Wu would defeat Capilano’s Chang and Chen 21-8, 21-10. In Round 3 vs TRU, Wei was paired once again with Simon Wu. Wei and Wu would defeat TRU’s Chu and Babichuk 16-21, 21-15, 21-13. In Round 4 vs Langara, Wei teamed up with Logan Campbell to defeat Langara’s Hooley and Latremouille 21-12, 21-12. In the 5th and Final round of team play vs Kwantlen, Wei was entered in Men’s Singles. He would defeat Simran Devgun 21-8, 21-8 to complete his perfect 5-0 record.

On Sunday there was no let up from him as he clinically went about his business winning the Men’s Singles event and then with his partner Logan Campbell, won the Men’s Doubles event without losing a game.

In Men’s Singles, advanced out of his pool defeating Pat Thompson (VIU) and Mark Chang (CAP) to advance to the Semi-Finals. In the Semis, Wei would play and defeat his Douglas teammate Bob Sharma 21-15, 21-18 to advance to the Finals. In the Finals, Wei defeated Langara’s Luke Couture 21-13, 21-10 to take the men’s Singles Event.

In Men’s Doubles, Wei partnered with Logan Campbell. Wei and Campbell would advance out of their pool defeating Langara and Kwantlen’s Men’s Doubles teams. In the Semi-Finals, Wei and Campbell defeated Capilano’s Change and Chen 21-12, 21-12 to advance to the Finals where they would meet up with Wu and Sharma, also of Douglas. The match was closely contested with Wei and Campbell taking it 22-20, 21-17.

Playing the maximum number of matches this past weekend, Wei finished with a perfect 13-0 record overall. He continues to work hard to develop his game and fitness as he looks to establish himself as a dominant player for the Royals.