Saipan Badminton Club triumphs

No contest.

Saipan Badminton Club swept all its 11 matches against the Berks Blazers to top the 5th Annual Traders Insurance Badminton Team Tournament last Sunday at the TSL Sports Complex.

The one-sided championship showdown was decided as early as after the sixth match of the night, as SBC won all via sweeps and earned 18 games won. The eventual champions went on to wrap up the finale with a 31-2 tally.

The champion club is composed of Dick Guintu, Gary Bandoja, Oh Inbog, Kok H. Pang, Oh Anyeol, Joel Ortega, Kang Yun Moo, Hannah Choi, Toshiko Obata, Heo In Sook, So Young Lee, Sunja Kim, Kim Boranah, Lee Sang Mi, Alma Ortega, and Lee Eun Yee.

Kang and Oh Anyeol teamed up in the men’s doubles C and trounced Rommel Bartolome and Roman Neri, 21-7, 21-10. The two other men’s doubles matches were also completed after only two games with Bandoja and Oh Inbog downing Gerry Balarao and Saul Gargallo in the B division, 21-15, 21-15, and Diola and Guintu edging Ferdie Arago and Gargallo in the A division, 21-19, 21-18.

In the women’s doubles, Boranah and Lee routed Jane Tupaz and Arlene Naquit in the C division, 21-9, 21-10; Obata and Sunja Kim swept Lani Bartolome and Annette Quiambao, 21-15, 21-15, in the B division; and Obata and Sunja Kim teamed up anew in winning the A division against Bartolome and Marlene Peraja, 21-19, 21-18.

SBC was credited with three more victories in the mixed doubles event. In the C division, Boranah and Ortega nailed a two-game win over Tupaz and Ylac Caracut, 21-18, 21-12, while Bandoja and Heo also needed only two games to rule the B division against siblings Wowie and Lot Abuel, 21-9, 21-13. The A mixed doubles went the distance with

Choi and Pang outlasting Arago and Naguit, 21-11, 19-21, 21-11.

The Berks Blazers earned their other point in the men’s singles with Macoi Aguda winning one game against Guintu. Aguda won the second game and Guintu prevailed in the first and third, 21-17, 21-17. Lee swept the women’s singles, whipping Abuel, 21-5, 21-0.

SBC’s 31-2 victory was the second lopsided win it recorded in the Traders Insurance team tournament and it was a fitting end for the club’s campaign in the annual competition as it was also undefeated in the elimination round. SBC advanced to the finals after crushing Shirley’s Badminton Club in the semis, 32-1. The Blazers took the other semis ticket after slipping past the Golden Racquet, 17-16. Golden Racquet and Shirley’s BC battled in the consolation round with the latter saving third place after an 18-15 victory.