SEVEN OCAA BADMINTON PLAYERS MEDAL AT NATIONALS

KAMLOOPS, B.C. - Eight Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) student-athletes headed west in search of a national badminton title. Although none returned home with the coveted gold, all but one earned medals.

The 2012 Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Badminton National Championship was held at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, B.C. from March 1-3. Champions from the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association (ACAA), Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) and Pacific Western Athletic Association (PACWEST) along with wild cards from the ACAC and PACWEST compete with OCAA champions at the CCAA tournament.

OCAA men's doubles champions Dayvon Reid and Mark Wong went undefeated in five round robin games. The duo from George Brown swept Jonathan Chang and Jason Chou of NAIT 2-0 (21-12, 21-18) in the semi-finals before narrowly losing the national final 2-1 (21-19, 12-21, 23-21) to Lou Wei and Simon Wu of Douglas College. Along with a national silver medal, Reid received the Eileen Harle Fair Play Award.

OCAA women's singles champion Tracy Wong of Humber also took home a silver medal. After going 4-1 in the round robin, Wong came back to defeat Grace Box of Concordia College 2-1 (14-21, 21-14, 21-15) in the semi-finals before losing 2-0 (21-13, 21-10) to RuiLin Huang of Douglas College in the final.

OCAA mixed doubles champions Patricia Lau and Sanjay Ashokkumar went 4-1 in the round robin. The Seneca teammates lost to Weslee Cheah and Quinn Conway of NAIT 2-0 (21-17, 21-17) in the semis before defeating Michelle Simard and Bradley Low of Kwantlen Polytechnic University 2-0 (21-16, 21-11) in the bronze medal match.

Alyssa Woon and Renee Yip also earned bronze medals. The OCAA women's doubles champions from Humber went 3-2 in the round robin before losing in the semi-finals 2-0 (21-14, 21-17) to Sinead Cheah and Jessica Yu of NAIT. Woon and Yip came back to earn bronze, defeating Mizuki Awai and Mary Smith of Red Deer College 2-1 (20-22, 21-15, 21-16).

OCAA men's singles champion Simon Yip of Humber went 2-3 in the round robin. Yip lost in the semi-finals 2-0 (21-8, 21-8) to Dan Kai of NAIT before dropping the bronze medal match 2-0 (23-21, 21-18) to Luke Couture of Langara College.

OCAA players finished in second place behind the PACWEST, improving on its third-place result last year. Its two silver and two bronze medals top the three bronzes earned in 2011.

OCAA badminton champions will not have far to travel to next year's nationals, with the 2013 event being hosted by Georgian College in Barrie, Ont.

- OCAA -

ABOUT ONTARIO COLLEGES ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION

The Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) is a recognized leader in intercollegiate athletics in the province, dedicated to student athlete and sport development. The OCAA has 31 members sponsoring 16 league and tournament championships.

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Ontario Colleges Athletic Association
Tel: 416-426-7041
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E-mail: bell-webster@ocaa.com