The George Brown Huskies badminton team took home three medals and the Men’s Team title championship at the OCAA Badminton Provincial Championships at Epic Sports Badminton Club.
Ace Zeng captured his second career OCAA gold medal in Men’s Singles after defeating Seneca’s Kunal Sokar in the finals. He also earned a spot in his third career CCAA National Championships, which will be hosted by NAIT College in Edmonton, Alta. In group play, the fourth-year player earned a bye to the semifinals after going undefeated, 4-0. In an epic match in the semifinals against fellow Husky, Sartha Arora, Zeng came away with a 21-16, 21-16 victory. What’s even more impressive about his run, is he didn’t drop a single set. His play also helped the Huskies tie the Seneca Sting for the Men’s team title.
He was also named OCAA Men's Badminton Player of the Year for the second time in his career and OCAA All-Ontario First Team for the third time.
Arora took home the bronze medal in Men’s Singles and played a critical role in the Huskies Men’s team title. The first-year Husky came second in Pool A after going 3-1 and defeated Humber’s Ben Houle 21-13, 21-6 in crossover quarter-finals. He dropped a close match to Zeng, before taking down Seneca’s Sehaj Bhardwaj in straight sets to earn bronze.
The final medal the Huskies won was the bronze medal in Mix Doubles. Amiel Dela Rosa and Fiona Kwan's pairing went 2-2 in round-robin play. After falling to the team of Houle/Kozlowsky from Boreal, the team took down Fanshawe’s Ashik/Sky 21-14, 21-8.
While in Women’s Doubles team of Sienna Tyler and Patricia Gazmen dropped their match in the semifinals and the bronze medal.
“As a Team on both Men's and Women's sides, we exceeded expectations winning the Men's banner (tied with Seneca) and placing 3rd for the Women overall. I'm extremely proud of our mixed Team being able to come together as a group and win the bronze in dominant fashion,” assistant coach Howard Wong explained. “It was Fiona's birthday yesterday and this was a perfect gift to cap off her grad year. Her experience also helped calm the nerves and pump Rookie Amiel up. He is a quick learner.”
The CCAA National Championships are scheduled to take on March 17th to March 19th.
