Strong finish for NMI Junior Badminton Team

The NMI’s Lina Tsukagoshi returns to Guam’s Danielle Snaer while her teammates watch from the bench during a singles match in the Pacific U15 Invitation Team Challenge over the weekend at the Auckland Badminton Stadium in New Zealand. (BADMINTON OCEANIA/PAUL FOXALL)

AUCKLAND, New Zealand—The NMI U15 Junior National Badminton Team ended their campaign in the Pacific U15 Invitation Team Challenge with a sweep after posting contrasting wins over Tonga and Guam over the weekend at the Auckland Badminton Stadium.

The NMI junior squad, made up of Shaina Malonzo, Ruth Charmaine Bautista, Lina Tsukagoshi, Justin Gragasin, and Jude Mallari, crushed Tonga last Saturday, 5-0, before closing out with a tough 3-2 victory over Guam last Sunday. The NMI representatives earlier lost to eventual third placer New Caledonia, 2-3, in their debut game in the competition last Friday. Champion Tahiti and runner-up Cook Islands also defeated the Janelle Pangilinan and Nate Guerrero-coached team.

After the heartbreaker against New Caledonia and two more losses to the tournament favorites, the NMI came out strong in the final two days of the tournament, starting off with a demolition of Tonga. Gragasin gave the NMI its first win over Tonga after beating Pulu Seleti Mafi, 21-16, 21-16.
In the girls singles, Bautista needed three games to edge Joyce Loto, 23-25, 21-14, 22-20. Bautista also won her mixed doubles match with Mallari as the NMI duo swept Semisi Filimailangi and Ela Mahe, 21-11, 21-9. The NMI also prevailed in the two other doubles match after only two games with Tsukagoshi and Malonzo dominating Malia Pateta and Loto in the women’s doubles, 21-4, 21-12, and Mallari and Gragasin outlasting Filimailangi and Mafi in the men’s doubles, 23-21, 21-12.

In yesterday’s match against Guam, Tsukagoshi and Malonzo delivered the game-winner for the NMI after they prevailed over Offlea Wang and Frederika Herman in the girls doubles, 21-16, 21-10.  Tsukagoshi won her singles duel against Danielle Snaer, 21-7, 21-7, for the NMI’s first win in the pairing. Earlier in the boys singles, Gragasin fell to Johnson Xia, 16-21, 12-21, to give Guam the upper hand.

After Tsukagoshi’s girls singles victory tied the game, 1-1, the NMI grabbed the lead when Gragasin and Mallari topped Jacob Paredes and Derrick Yan in the men’s doubles, 21-15, 21-9. Tsukagoshi and Malonzo then sealed the win in the women’s doubles, while Xia and Snaer took the last game of the pairing, beating Mallari and Malonzo, 21-11, 21-14.

The triumph over Guam yesterday put the NMI at No. 4 in the final rankings behind New Caledonia, Cook Islands, and Tahiti. A similar 3-2 win over Cook Islands in their last game gave Tahiti the championships as the latter finished the competition unbeaten in five matches. New Caledonia secured third place following a 5-0 victory over Tonga last Sunday.

Meanwhile, NMBA president Merlie Tolentino congratulated the NMI U15 Junior National Badminton Team for a job well done in their first-ever off-island competition.

“Our players came from our interscholastic program, which as we all know just started a little over a year ago. They’ve never competed (in badminton) outside the NMI and had limited tournaments locally, but to stand toe-to-toe with New Caledonia, which has one of the strong badminton programs in the Pacific Oceania, and challenged powerhouse Tahiti and the developing Cook Islands is an achievement that we, at the NMBA, are proud of. They made their mark in New Zealand and I hope this will inspire them to stay committed with the program and keep working on improving their games and passing on the things they learned from the competition to their fellow students and teammates,” Tolentino said.

The NMBA president thanked the Northern Marianas Sports Association, Tan Holdings, Tan Siu Lin Foundation, and Governor’s Office for the assistance in sending the team to the regional competition and coaches Guerrero, Pangilinan, and Ezekiel Macario for training the youth squad. Tolentino also acknowledged  the leadership of Badminton Oceania for moving ahead with the tournament and securing the safety of the participants amid the threat of the recent flooding in Auckland. (PR)