Pangilinan, Guerrero hand NMI first title in Guam

The NMI’s Janelle Pangilinan, second left, and Nate Guerrero, third left, pose with Guam National Badminton Federation president Sandra Low, left, and other winners and participants in the 2022 Guam Badminton Invitational Tournament during the awards ceremony for the open mixed doubles event last Sunday at the Guam Badminton Sports Center in Barrigada.
(CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

The tried-and-tested pair of Janelle Pangilinan and Nate Guerrero delivered the first championship for Team NMI in the 2022 Guam Badminton Invitational Tournament after topping the Open mixed doubles event in the weekend competition held at the Guam Badminton Sports Center in Barrigada.

The NMI duo secured the division title after sweeping Guam’s C.J. Estipona and Elaine Labang, 21-19, 21-12. Before advancing to the finale, Pangilinan and Guerrero had to slip past fellow NMI National Badminton Team players Andreau Galvez and Windy Fernandez in a three-game semis tiff. Estipona and Labang, on the other hand, reached the finals after downing Jordan Pangilinan and Jeanelyn Cardinio, also from the NMI.

Four other teams were entered in the mixed doubles event with Guam’s Sunardi Li partnering with Jenny Lue and John Conducto working with Mylene Gascon, NMI’s Daniel Macario joining forces with Jenine Savellano, and Japanese Akira Hitomi pairing with compatriot Ai Okamura.

Following their title win, Janelle Pangilinan said that although they prevailed after only two games, the finals match was very competitive and she and Guerrero credited their long-time partnership as a key factor to the victory.

“We have played in multiple tournaments together which allowed us to come this far. We were challenging Guam’s No. 1 player in the men’s which made the competition level high, but we survived due to putting together our skills and techniques. Winning this gave us an opportunity to know where we stand and what we should focus more on as we continue to prepare for the Pacific Mini Games,” Pangilinan said.

“We had really tough opponents in our champion game—one of the players hadn’t lost a set that whole tournament up until that point. However, I knew that if we played the way I know we could, then there wasn’t any doubt in my mind that we would win that game. We had our moments just like they did in the game, but at the end of it all, it was our chemistry that helped us pull though. It was a great learning experience playing against them,” Guerrero said.

Meanwhile, the NMI also had a finals entry in the open men’s doubles with Jordan Pangilinan and Galvez making it to the championship game. The Commonwealth bets eliminated Hitomi and Rui Wang to gain a finals berth and set up their title showdown against Estipona and Conducto, who ousted Li and Ian Piencenaves in the other semis game. Estipona and Conducto went on to deny the NMI its second straight doubles title after outclassing Galvez and Pangilinan, 21-8, 21-15.

Besides the open mixed and men’s doubles event, the Guam Badminton Invitational Tournament also featured competition in the C mixed doubles, women singles, and women’s doubles, the open women’s singles and doubles, and juniors singles and mixed doubles. Official results with complete scores will be reported once released by the organizing GNBF.