By Andrew King | Posted: Wednesday June 26, 2024
Last weekend the badminton team competed in the South Island Secondary Schools competition held in Christchurch.
Being seeded 4th meant that the team had their work cut out for them to top their pool and qualify for the medals.
A focused performance in the first tie against Rolleston College led to a 6 - 0 win. Aaron Young and Jayden Lu got the team away to a composed start to settle the nerves for the rest of the team.
The next tie pitted us against the number three seed Burnside 2. Again we got off to a good start with the brother combination of Jayden and Levi Lu winning the first doubles with a high quality performance of attacking badminton. After two closely contested losses, the pressure was on our two top singles players to guide us to victory. Both Jayden Lu and Joseph Chen were out of the blocks fast and clinched the vital points with ease in their singles encounters.
This meant we were straight back on court against the defending champions Burnside 1. It was a tight tussle from the start with five out of the six matches going to the deciding game. Eventually Burnside 1 came out on top with a 4-2 win. However, to illustrate how tight the overall tie was both teams ended the tie on 322 points.
A solid win the next morning guaranteed the silver medals for the boys. A great improvement and positive that the entire team is back next year.
A special mention must go to Ali Lu our team manager for all his support and thanks to all the families for their help with the fundraising.
Next up is the Otago final and Interschool v King's on Wednesday next week, and then the build up to Nationals in September.