Badminton champs drive for gold in regionals at York U
Posted on 03. Feb, 2010 by David White in Sports
ROBERT SYKES
SPORTS REPORTER
If the Humber Hawks badminton team don’t come home with a team gold medal at this weekend’s OCAA regional tournament, assistant coach Mike Kopniak will be shocked.
“I expect gold medals all around,” Kopinak said. “I think anything short of gold as a team will be disappointing.”
First year-year head coach, Lam Trinh said, “We have a lot of depth, especially on the men’s side, but on the women’s too.”
On the men’s side, the doubles team of Mark Wong and Charlie Lay is expected to do very well at the tournament, being held at York University tomorrow and Saturday.
Wong, last year’s OCAA men’s player of the year, and Lay, the reigning OCAA doubles gold medallist along with former partner Alang Luangrath, are coming off a gold medal performance at the Rose City doubles tournament in Windsor last month. Recent victories have been attributed to an increase in communication.
“They didn’t do as well as they could have in some early tournaments,” said Kopinak, “but they’ve really began to talk out there on the court, and results have shown it.”
The Hawks’ depth also came in handy when selecting the mixed doubles team of Raymond Wong and Renee Yip.
Raymond, a national bronze medallist and two-time OCAA gold medallist all in singles play, has been matched up with first year standout player Yip. Yip has dominated in nearly every match so far this season, winning gold in women’s singles and gold in mixed doubles with Raymond at the Fanshawe Invitational last fall.
“Renee and Raymond could win in any category they went in individually, so we feel very confident in them together,” said Kopinak.
Chemistry aside, the coaches have moved to getting the team physically ready for the tournament.
“We’ve been training really hard physically,” said Lay. “The coaches don’t let us touch a racquet until the second hour of practice.”
“We push them to the limit on a regular basis,” said coach Trinh, “so in tournaments like this weekend, they can bring it to the next level.”
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