Sting Start Strong on Opening Day
AURORA, Ont. - Conestoga's Devika Kumar and Centennial's Colin Zhou dominated the competition on the opening day of the 2023 Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) Badminton Championships.
Devika Kumar was the lone Women's Singles player not to drop a set, finished with a 3-0 record. Only twice did an opponent reach double digits in a set against the OCAA West Region Women's Player of the Year. Also sitting at 3-0 is Humber's Zeel Rohit, who remained perfect with a hard-fought three set win over Seneca's Moti Shams including a 22-20 third set. Shams finished day one at 2-2 while Centennial's Ivy Wong and Thanawadee Kochapanya of George Brown were 0-3.
The OCAA's Men's Player of the Year Colin Zhou of Centennial sits atop the Men's Singles division at 4-0. Zhou failed to drop a set and was only challenged in one match against Colts' teammate Dave Vishal, winning 21-18, 21-19. Dave is 3-1 through four rounds with the lone loss to Zhou. OCAA West Division Men's Player of the Year Arpi Sinha of Fanshawe is 2-2 with both losses coming against the Colts members and sits in a third-place tie with Sadik Ali of Conestoga. St. Lawrence's Nadeem Nahaz (1-3) and Fanshawe's Michael Gao (0-4) round out the field.
Humber's Women's Doubles team of Victoria Duong and Airi Moromisato remains the only undefeated team in the division, surrending just 16 points in four sets combined. Conestoga's Marla Bettis and Sarah Dirkse along with Morgan Grant and Mook Prasarn of Fanshawe are both 1-1 with the Condors winning the head-to-head in three sets 21-10, 16-21, 21-18. Seneca's Danessa Griffith and Danielle Yanes sits in fourth.
The Humber Hawks sit atop the Men's Doubles standings after day one. The team of Nishant Batra and Sirapob Kongubon were 4-0 without dropping a set, including a win over the host Seneca Sting 21-13, 21-14. The Seneca duo of Anthony Tso and Kevin Shah sit at 3-1. In a tie for third, Centennial's Adam Wilson and Brandon Cheung are 2-2 alongside Brandon Watkins and Afsar Chowdury of St. Lawrence with the two teams facing off in round five Saturday morning. Conestoga's Kevin Jos Maria Joseph and Sandeep Suresh were 1-3, winning the "match of day" against Cambrian's Dom Brunette-Royer and Robin Davis (0-4), a three-set thriller which saw the third set finish 26-24. The loss was costly for Cambrian as an injury on match point resulted in the team being forced to forfeit their fourth round match and withdraw from the championship.
The race for the top spot in the Mixed Doubles division will hotly contested. Monique Lee and Sarthak Arora of George Brown were 4-0 while Centennial's Ninh Le and Denisse Scott and Seneca's Dhruv Taneja and Mehak Chawla were each 3-1 on opening day. With one final spot available in the semi-final, Fanshawe's Aniket Ramrupwad and Kenra McCoy and Humber's Thanh Lam and Glorinelle Questin each have a record of 1-3 while Ethan Troupe and Carly Thompson of Conestoga (0-4) sits one win back.
The fifth round will be contested at 10:00am on Saturday morning at the KC Badminton Club in Aurora. Immediately following the fifth round will be the semi-final followed by the bronze and gold medal matches in each division.
The OCAA champion and silver medalist in each division will qualify for the CCAA National Badminton Championship March 8-11 at Dalhousie Agricultural Campus in Truro, NS.