RP. badminton campaigns abroad

This one is obviously for badminton fanatics. We get so little news about the activities of our country's best badminton players in the sports pages, and it was the badminton buff in me that said if neither the big newspapers nor the local dailies are going to print anything about Philippine badminton, then Bleacher Talk will.

We've always believed that if our country's best shuttlers hope to make any noise in the badminton scene, they shouldn't be wasting their time on local shores. They need to go abroad to get the much-needed training and exposure. And here's good news! We have the latest on the activities of the Asuncion siblings Kennie and Kennevic, along with fellow Pinoys Karyn "Chibby" Velez, Paula Obañana and Eric Go. They all saw action recently at the 2006 Yonex OCBC U.S. Open this week in Orange County, California.

Before anything else though, special mention though, should be made for 16-year old Chibby Velez of the Golden Shuttle Foundation who won gold medal of the Under-22, U19 and U19 age groups at the Manhattan Beach Badminton tournament. This took place a week before the 2006 Yonex OCBC U.S. Open. Although the competition was obviously not as stiff as that which we have in the ASEAN region, I'm sure it was a big boost for confidence-building in future overseas tournaments. The Asuncions also won a couple of mixed doubles tournaments in New Zealand last month.

At the 2006 Yonex OCBC U.S. Open, the country's participation was a case of good news-bad news with a touch of "From Russia with Love."

The Asuncions teamed up in mixed doubles. Kennie and Velez took part in women's singles while Obañana paired with Kennie in women's doubles. Kennevic paired with Eric Go in men's doubles, and both also played in men's singles. Go is registered under "USA," but reports have said that he's as Pinoy as all of us.

In mixed doubles, Kennevic and Kennie Asuncion started out on a high note, routing the pair of Junichi Kasuga and Tiffanie Kimura of the USA, 21-4, 21-5. The bad news was that the Asuncions lost their next match to Vitaly Durkin and Valerya Sorokina of Russia in a close one, 22-19, 20-22, 20-22. The scores indicate this could've gone either way. If it's any consolation, the Russian pair made it all the way to the finals of the tournament.

In men's singles, it was the same story for Kennevic. He won his first match over Zaw Win (USA), 21-15, 21-15. But he was't as lucky in the round of 16, losing to another Russian Sergey Ivlev, 10-21, 12-22.

In women's singles, Kennie won her first singles match over Tiffanie Kimura (USA), 21-4, 21-9. A loss then sent her packing as she bowed to Eva Lee (USA) 7-21, 12-21. Chibby Velez, fresh from her win at the MBBC Juniors tournament, won her first round match over Ruth Menchaca (USA) 21-6, 21-11. She then lost her second match to Joohyun Lee (USA), 10-21, 10-21. Lee then went on to win her next two matches and is now playing for the championship.

In men's doubles, Kennevic and Eric Go won their first match by default, then ran into the tough pair of Evgeny Dremin and Sergey Lunev of Russia, 21-19, 16-21, 12-21. In women's doubles, the pair of Kennie and Obañana won their first match over Kuei-Ya Chen and Jaime Subandhi (USA), 21-19, 21-12. And yes, you guessed it, they followed the pattern set by all the other matches of Pinoys, losing to Nina Vislova and Valerya Sorokina (Russia) 14-21, 13-21. The Russian also made it to the finals that will be played Sunday night (US time).

And so our top shuttlers will come home without a trophy this time, but I'm certain with a wealth of experience under their belts. We just hope this will enable them to take their games to the next level and be a more serious threat in the region.

But the one thing that made an impression on me was the performance of the Russian delegation at the tournament. Of the five events being played, Russia is the finals of four: women's singles, women's doubles, mixed doubles and mens' doubles. But so what?

I'd like to think that if we were to make a comparison and a guess, the rise of badminton in Russia may be compared to us the Philippines. Russia has never been known as a badminton power in Europe, and they've been taking the long and arduous road to making it big in the sport, much in the same way that the Philippines has been trying to create a buzz in the region. The sad news is that it looks like they're beating us to the draw.

I hope our Philippine Badminton Association (PBA) learns from the Russian example. They may be no names in the European scene, but it looks like they're taking the right steps towards reaching their own dreams. Does the PBA have any dreams to reach? What concrete steps is it doing to reach these dreams?

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Time-out: Happy birthday to Ayee Venida! >>> You can reach me at [email protected]