‘Pressure on badminton to medal’

The CNMI’s Janelle Pangilinan and Jenine Savellano in action during the badminton competition of the Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games 2022 at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium. (NMPMG/MICHAEL JORNAL)

All eyes were on badminton in the final day of competition as they were the last sport yet to medal for host CNMI in the Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games 2022, and with that, the pressure was on.

Team manager and Northern Marianas Badminton Association president, Merlie Tolentino, said that coming into the competition, whatever happened as long as they played their best, they were happy, but since badminton was the last sport to finish and all the other sports NMI joined had medals already, “there was pressure at the end” to win.

“But overall, it was fantastic. It was an awesome experience for the badminton players on the island,” added Tolentino.

Nate Guerrero, team captain for the CNMI National Badminton Team, said “overall, it was a really good experience. It was a really good eye-opener.”

“Everybody wants to shoot for gold, but we’re happy with the results we got. It was a good eye-opener because we found out that even against the Top 2 teams that our skill level was not that far—we were sort of at a speed deficit. But it’s just something you need to learn and you need experience. We can only grow from here and we will only get better from here on out,” said Guerrero about the performance of the team.

It was just the second international competition for the CNMI badminton team, the first was in the 2019 Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa. 

For now, badminton is not in the program for the 2023 Honiara Pacific Games, but Guerrero hopes it will be in “because we would really like to be in the Pacific Games and get as much play time and exposure as we can.”

In the future, the badminton team will be competing in Australia, “so we need to start working hard as soon as we can and make those adjustments on those mistakes that we made and we’ll be ready for them,” said Guerrero.

The CNMI’s Janelle Pangilinan and Jenine Savellano gave the CNMI a bronze medal in badminton after beating Tahiti’s Hortensia Manzanal and Waianuhea Teheura, 21-12 21-9, in women’s doubles.

Also making up the CNMI National Badminton Team are team captain Nathan Guerrero, Andreau Galvez, Jordan Pangilinan, siblings Ezekiel and Daniel Macario, Leonard Isaiah Manuel, the aforementioned Pangelinan and Savellano, Jeanelyn Cardinio, Windy Ann Fernandez, and sisters Michaella and Mikamaika Serrano. The team was coached by James Digno and assistant coaches Paulo Quidato and Patricia Surima.