The 29th Annual Secondary School Badminton Tournament, concludes today at Yat Sen Secondary School, bringing an end to three days of intense competition that began on Thursday.
The tournament has attracted strong nationwide participation, with 18 schools competing from Suva, Nadi, Lautoka and as far as Lekutu Secondary School in Bua Province.
President of Badminton Fiji Able Caine described this year’s competition as one of the strongest in recent years due to increase participation and competitive standard.
“This year, we have a huge increase in the number of schools, to 18 schools,” Caine said.
Yesterday’s action featured the concluding stages for the teams competitions, where schools competed on demanding five-match ties involving singles and double contests.
Many encounters were decided in the final match, keeping the intensity high throughout the day.
“In the team’s competition, we get each of the members of the team to play five matches,” Caine explained.
“So if either teams win two-all, it always comes down to that last fifth climatic match.”
In the boys division, defending champions Yat Sen Secondary School showed dominance by successfully defending their title for the seventh consecutive year after overcoming International Secondary School in the final.
Meanwhile, the girl’s division produced one of the tournaments biggest stories, with Swami Vivekananda College (SVC) from Nadi reaching the final in only their second year of participation. The finals continued yesterday afternoon when this edition went to press.
“No surprise, Yat Sen is one of the girls team in the final, but amazingly, for only the second year of participation, SVC from Nadi is the finalist in the girls competition,” Caine said.
Attention also shifter to the individual singles competitions, which began yesterday afternoon and concludes today. Organisers introduced a new format this year allowing every player to participate in the individual event rather than limiting entries to top-ranked athletes.
“Every single player will play individual,” Kane said. “So what that’s meant is every single player has played all three days. We’re getting maximum badminton.”
As the tournament wraps up today, standout individual players including Bowen Narayan of Yat Sen and Isimeli Nayavakalou of Jeremiah Raibevu College are expected to feature strongly in the race for national individual honours.
