14th MBA HOME TOURNAMENT 2013



Aaron nailed it finally!

 Aaron has finally nailed it! He has beaten defending champion, Darren Tan, his second title to date.

It was exactly one year ago after the 12^th Inter-MBA Tournament, spurred by the boy’s encouraging results, we started the boys to train seriously and today, Aaron’s victory is the testament to all our family’s one year of tireless effort to get the boys where they are today.

Aaron was lucky to have a free passage all the way to the Quarter Final. He had his nerve tested early by a strong hitting Tay Zhao Jun from Taman Megah.  However, Aaron prevailed and won. In the semi-final against Tan Chi Hong aka dinosaur despite being three years his senior, Aaron had not much trouble apart from Chi Hong's close net play.

Ryan cant match the speed of Darren

In the final, Aaron raced ahead by some large margin due to Darren’s uncharacteristic unforced errors. He won his first set by an unexpected large margin 21 - 5. In the second set, Darren tried to come back but Aaron stood his ground and won 21 - 12 to claim his victory. 

Ryan was seeded No. 8, unlike his younger brother, had to battle his way from round 1. When he crossed swords with the defending champion in the quarter final, he ran out of steam and lost to the diminutive no. 1 seed.

That evening, we celebrated with a hearthy Japanese meal of Aaron’s choice followed by a movie “White House Down” to unwind the boys. The next day, they were back to serious training. I spoke to Aaron not to be carried away by this success. This is only but the beginning. He had to keep his focus on achieveing his targets next year. To close the gap with his bench mark, Ooi Zhin Yang and to get into the National Circuit. 



The semi-finalist of 14th MBA Home Tournament 2013

  Intermediate Boys Singles Under 12

1^st Round             :  Walkover

2^nd Round            :  Walkover

3^rd Round             :  Walkover

Quarter Final        : 3 Aaron Wong (Puchong) vs  5 Tay Zhao Jun (Tmn Megah)          30 - 25

Semi Final             : 3 Aaron Wong (Puchong) vs  7 Tan Chi Hong (Puchong)              21 – 17, 21 - 9

Final                      : 3 Aaron Wong (Puchong) vs  1 Darren Tan (Puchong)                  21 - 5, 21 – 12

1^st Round             :  8 Ryan Wong (Puchong) vs Tan Lik Shin (Puchong)                        30 - 14

2^nd Round            :  8 Ryan Wong (Puchong) vs Koi Zhen (Tmn Megah)                        30 -6

3^rd Round             :  8 Ryan Wong (Puchong) vs Ngeow Dey Ren (Tmn Megah)            30 - 20

Quarter Final       :  8 Ryan Wong (Puchong) vs  1 Darren Tan (Puchong)                    16 – 30

Seeding :

1 Darren Tan (Puchong)

2 Chew Kuan Leong (Tmn Megah)

3 Aaron Wong (Puchong)

4 Roy Koh (Tmn Megah)

5 Tay Zhao Jun (Tmn Megah)

6 Chai Chun Hong (Puchong)

7 Tan Chi Hong (Puchong)

8 Ryan Wong (Puchong)

13th INTER-MBA TOURNAMENT 2012




Aaron with his YY Arc Saber

 

2012 came to a close with the final Tournament in our calendar, the 13^th Inter-MBA held in MBA Taman Megah. For the first time, the boys will be contending in the Intermediate level having just stepped up to this level 2.5 months ago. All the zealous training this year has culminated to this penultimate test.

Nicholas Lim, the boys’ 10 year-old cousin who spent his holidays with us for a few weeks competed in the basic-level pool of 21 contestants. He won his first round against an 8-year-old boy but lost in his second round to a stronger opponent who eventually made it to the semi-final.

Aaron’s badminton was like an art - playing perhaps his best game I have ever seen. Prior to the tournament, both my wife and I have been giving him lots of pep talk to prepare him mentally to approach his games in a positive way. He had a fairly easy passage in the first round but fell in the second round although he was slightly better technically. His lack of experience showed when he was trailing by 3 to 4 points in the second half. He got desperate and made several unforced errors which cost him his game.





Ryan lost by only one point

 Ryan had a bye in the first round. He managed his game steadily to win in his next two rounds to enter quarter-finals. His quarter-final opponent was seeded 4^th in this tournament of 37 contestants. They were equal stroke for stroke with Ryan leading narrowly 15-14 before the break. The boys were neck to neck again until the game was tied at match point 29-29. It ended with Ryan overshot his forehand drive and handed the game to his opponent. Ryan was in tears as he was so close to upset a seeded player. However, being in the top 8 out of 37 players is already quite an achievement having been in intermediate level after just 2.5 months and we can take comfort that he is just a tad short for 3^rd or 4^th best.  











Results Boys Singles Basic Level

1^st Round :             Nicholas Lim vs Lye Jun Min                            30-25

2^nd Round :            Nicholas Lim vs Tan Man Peng                       12-30

Results Boys Singles Intermediate Level

1^st Round :             Aaron Wong vs Tan Wei Tze                              30-21

2^nd Round :            Aaron Wong vs Nicholas Hew                          27-30

1^st Round :             Bye

2^nd Round :           Ryan Wong vs Ngeow Dey Ren                        30-22

3^rd Round              Ryan Wong vs Tan Kai Hong                             30-23

Quarter-Final         Ryan Wong vs Chew Kuan Leong (4)              29-30

Inter-MBA Tournament - 30th June 2012

Semi Finalist - Inter MBA June 2012

I can say the turn of event was triggered during this Tournament. Ryan 7^th seed, made it to the semi-finals whereas Aaron 8^th seed, bowed out in the quarter finals. Considering there were more than 160 Basic Level participants, The boys having lived up to their billing was very encouraging indeed.

What was more agonizing was to see both loosing to their opponents who were not very much superior in skill. Aaron had 10 points lead thrown away from silly unforced errors. He could not contain his composure when the Indian boy tidied up his shots slightly. Ryan lost to a tad more skillful player who could place the shuttle better. Furthermore, he was tiring out after 6 continuous knock out games and his lack of fitness was evident when he began to return lots of half court shots. Both the Indian boy and the shuttle placer advanced to final and the latter became champion.

From this contest, I knew they were not very far off from the top four. We could see their glaring lack of net play and placing skills. Ryan 10 years old was stronger in his drives but was less agile than Aaron. After this tournament, my wife and I agreed to put in some of our personal attention to enhance their training programme. We were determined to prepare them better for the next Inter-MBA in December 2012.

                                        

Inter-MBA Tournament - December 2011

One month into MBA training, the half yearly Inter-MBA Tournament was held. All MBA shuttlers from Taman Megah and Puchong were invited to participate in this tournament for a small fee.

The participants were divided into three categories, Basic, Intermediate and Advance level. Our boys were just getting started, so they were in Basic category. All the games were played in singles. Parents were also invited to play doubles pairing with their kids in a parent-child doubles competition. Since there was no charge for this, my wife and I enrolled ourselves for the doubles competition. Ryan partnered me while Aaron partnered my wife.

Since this was the first time playing in a competition, we did not expect much from our 2 boys. We just prepared them as best as we could in the short time available. True enough, they were beaten in the first round. Ryan lost narrowly but Aaron walked out of the game halfway and was in tears because he could not win his game. We had a good laugh but we consoled him.

In the parent-child doubles, we were also knocked out in the first round by more advanced pairs. Nevertheless, we had a good family time there and an eye opener how our boys measured against he rest of the competition. We realized for the first time if the boys were keen to bring their game up to the next level, they definitely had to do a lot more work in the months ahead of them.