The Carebaco Junior Badminton Championships ended on Sunday at the National Racquet Centre (NRC) in Orange Grove, Tacarigua and it left the twin-island Republic with not only medals and trophies but also experience for several young players, as well as a moment of history.
Vishal Ramsubhag, the son of T&T Badminton Association president Chandrika Ramsubhag, shot himself into the history books as the first T&T player to have won the under-19 boys’ title at the Carebaco.
On Sunday’s final day of competition, Ramsubhag brushed aside number 1 seed Nathaniel Finzi of Jamaica in straight sets 21-11, 21-17.
Afterwards, Ramsubhag said the tournament was much easier than he expected. Ramsubhag claimed the national championship title in March and produced flawless badminton performances on his way to the title match, beating Keyon Dre McBean of Suriname in the round of 16 21-12, 21-16; Diego Dos Ramos of Suriname 16-21, 21-11, 21-5 in the quarterfinals; and his countryman Aaiden Ramcharan in the semifinals 21-12, 21-19.
Surprisingly, he said his most challenging match of the tourney came from his compatriot in the semis.
“It feels really good to have won the title, and to be the first T&T player to have won it in my division, but I must say though, I was expecting the tournament to be much harder.
“The experience was good, but for me, it turned out that I was just doing something I love to do and having fun too. My biggest scare came when Finzi defeated my colleague Travis Sinanan, who I know is a very good player, so I was a little bit thrown off. I, however, held my own in the final and won,” Ramsubhag explained.
Ramsubhag’s title added to an overall outstanding achievement by the T&T team, which included a double crown for Tenniya Tobias who defeated Samiya Karim 21-16, 21-10 for the girls’ under-15 singles before teaming up with Ethan Ramcharan for the Mixed Doubles title that came at the expense of the Suriname pair of Joshua Lan and Riana Wijngaarde 21-11, 21-23 and 21-16.
Liam Rajkumar also cruised to the boys’ under-11 title by beating Liam Bruce of Barbados in the singles final 21-15, 21-9 for the first of his three titles. Later Sunday, Rajkumar, who had to put his preparation for the SEA on hold, then returned to the court with Terrell Gonzales to claim the boys’ doubles crown at the expense of the Barbadian pair of Liam Bruce and Jeremi Wright 21-15, 21-13.
His triple crown came in the mixed doubles, where he formed an unstoppable duo with Asia Lee Waller to prevail over the team of Anik Price-Soudatt and Yazmyn Eastmond 21-13, 21-11.
Both Tobias and Rajkumar said they were expecting to win as the tournament was not as hard as they had expected. “It was not really that hard because I played against most of my opponents already. However, it really feels good to win. I really wanted to win the three titles but I missed out in the doubles,” Tobias explained.
Rajkumar said: “I am feeling really proud. I was expecting to win. My last opponent was the hardest, but now I feel confident that I can move on to the u-13 division to play.”
In other results, the pair of Ryan Sinanan and Dejuan Williams defeated Sameer Ali and Ramsibhag in the boys’ under-19 doubles 21-15, 18-21, 21-14; the team of Jace Smith and T’Shelle Barnes prevailed over the twosome of Aditya Maharaj and Amara Urquhart 21-14, 21-17 for the mixed doubles u-17 title; Amara Urquhart defeated T’Shelle Barnes for the girls’ under-17 singles 21-11m, 21-19; the pair of Aditya Maharaj and Kiram Rampersad clobbered the team of Smith and Kaveer Ramoutar for the boys’ under-17 doubles title; Barnes/Amara Urquhart defeated Yelena Lewis/Kara-Ashley Robertson for the girls’ doubles crown 21-13, 21-14; the team of Kimora Bissessar/Samiya Karim defeated Tobias/Aliyah Urquhart for the girls’ under-15 doubles 21-18, 21-11; Liam Persad defeated Chijioke Kalu for the boys’ under-13 singles; the team of Liam Persad/Logan Waithe beat the pair of Kalu/Vevekanand Singh 21-14, 21-11 for the under-13 boys’ doubles; the team of Rishelle Boodoosingh/Jer’Nyce Cadette clobbered the duo of Tanvie Orie/Serenity Tinto in the girls’ under-13 doubles 14-21, 21-9, 21-12.
