MONCTON, N.B. – Young phenom Sam Yuan led the P.E.I. contingent at the East Coast open badminton tournament recently.
Yuan won under-17 boys’ singles, doubles and mixed doubles as Island competitors posted eight top-two placings out of the 20 events.
Yuan dominated singles with three straight wins, and then defeated Nova Scotia’s Trevor Yane (14, 15) in the final. Alex Zheng placed third.
Yuan/Cheng teamed up to capture the doubles’ title, winning two matches to reach the final, then defeating Hayne/Jakob Lorifice (15, 16).
Yuan teamed with Karla McCallum to complete the triple crown in mixed doubles. They had a rough three-game match in the semifinals, but cruised in the final over Lorifice/Martha Jewkes (14, 4).
Breau wins three medals
Adelle Breau won two gold and a silver in under-15 events. She won her two opening matches in girls’ singles, then beat New Brunswick’s Tra Mi Do (13, 12) for the gold.
In doubles, she partnered with New Brunswick’s Janhea Hogan to go 4-0 (won-lost) in round-robin play.
In mixed play, she and teammate Spencer Gallant lost a very close match in the final versus Nova Scotia’s Jesse Hayes/Lily Reid (21-14, 12-21, 14-21).
Gallant and teammate Guangqian Shen placed third in under-15 boys’ doubles. Junming Feng placed fourth in under-15 boys’ singles.
Women’s singles
In women’s singles A, Bo Jiang made it to the semifinals in a field of 18. Also noteworthy was 14-year-old McCallum reaching the quarter-finals before losing in three tight games to the eventual silver-medallist.
Jiang then partnered with Nova Scotia’s Jun Zhang to get to the semifinals of women’s doubles A. Jiang captured the mixed doubles B event with teammate Yu Chen after a tight in the final over New Brunswick’s Jack Gillies/Anna Gillies (19, 17).
Chen/Daniel Breau continued their strong performances in the men’s doubles B events, defeating Jeannot Hachey/Rene-Jacques Hachey in the final (21-15, 14-21, 21-12).
Brandon Gaudet/Brandon Hastings performed well in their first Atlantic men’s doubles B event, making it to the quarter-finals.
