Yorkregion.com - Sports - From injury to victory
From injury to victory
Sports
May 08, 2008 07:39 PM
By: Mike Hayakawa
Carrie Li and Timothy Lam settled for the silver medal in the York Region high school senior mixed badminton finals.
But when the Unionville High School Grade 11 tandem went to the Ontario championships in St. Catharines, Li and Lam took their game a step further.
Facing their adversaries from the York final, Richmond Hill High’s Tracy Wong and Mark Wong, Li and Lam reversed their fortunes by claiming the gold medal 2-0 (21-17, 21-13).
Ray Kong, senior badminton coach at Unionville High, wasn’t surprised at the result.
“I thought they would be the favourites at the provincials,” he said.
During the York final, Kong revealed Li played with a slight knee injury.
As a result, Kong said the pair elected to bear down in its challenge match with the third-place team that would determine York’s second provincial entry.
In their rematch with Wong and Wong, Kong said Li was healthy.
“Carrie and Timothy had to be at 100 per cent to beat Wong and Wong,” he said.
Their success came from hard work to perfect their game, Kong said. Not just on the court, but away from it, too.
“They’re relentless in the amount of practice time they do. They’re high calibre athletes who train at least three times a week for two-to-three hours. And not just on their skills, but fitness, too,” he said.
“They’re quick and they have endurance because the plays can go on for five or six volleys. And they don’t have just power, but finesse, too. Timothy is like the quarterback who sets up the plays while Carrie executes the final point.
“The game they play isn’t the same that you would play at your cottage,” Kong said.
Li and Lam had little time to dwell on their achievement as Kong said they went to Montreal this week to participate in the national championships.
While Li and Lam won the provincial gold, the Unionville boys’ doubles team of Damien Cheung and Nathan Lee, both Grade 11 students, finished fourth.
In boys’ singles, Matthew Wu, a Grade 12 student at Unionville High, also finished fourth.