|
Aaron with his YY Arc Saber |
2012 came to a close with the final Tournament in our calendar, the 13th 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 4th 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 3rd or 4th best.
Results Boys Singles Basic Level
1st Round : Nicholas Lim vs Lye Jun Min 30-25
2nd Round : Nicholas Lim vs Tan Man Peng 12-30
Results Boys Singles Intermediate Level
1st Round : Aaron Wong vs Tan Wei Tze 30-21
2nd Round : Aaron Wong vs Nicholas Hew 27-30
1st Round : Bye
2nd Round : Ryan Wong vs Ngeow Dey Ren 30-22
3rd Round Ryan Wong vs Tan Kai Hong 30-23
Quarter-Final Ryan Wong vs Chew Kuan Leong (4) 29-30