Team BC Badminton earns gold for retiring coach Shaikh

Team BC badminton won gold in a hard-fought battle today against Alberta. Fresh off a team loss to Alberta yesterday, BC came out strong and played aggressive badminton.

“It feels amazing…it’s overwhelming. I don’t think the dictionary has a word for it,” said team captain Joshua Liu.

To start the day, Liu won a tight game against Alberta’s Byron Holcek, while James Ho lost an even tighter game to Ty Lindeman on the adjacent court.

The women followed, with two wins from Qingzi Ouyang and Kylie Cheng, both of whom handled their opponents with confidence.

In order to win the team competition, either team needed to win the majority of the 9 matches. Heading into the doubles matches, Team BC was up 3 matches to Alberta’s 1.

Men’s doubles team Simon Cheng and Jack Lin dropped their game in two sets. Meanwhile, on the next court, the other BC men’s doubles team of Liu and Li provided the crowd entertainment, with two tight sets of 21-19 each. In a true display of athletic effort, the final point of the first set ended with both players hitting the deck. A diving save from Li kept the rally going until Liu ended it with a decisive smash.

“That was the turning point for us,” said team manager Cindy Simpson.

Cheng and Ouyang then played together in a women’s doubles match and kept the women’s streak going, winning in three sets with scores of 22-17, 13-21, and 18-21. That win earned the gold medal for Team BC, ending the encounter with 5 match wins from BC and two from Alberta.  

“I actually feel like crying because it’s my last Games and I know they did this for me,” said head coach Abdul Shaikh, who will retire after nearly 50 years of coaching badminton.

This is also Team BC manager Cindy Simpson’s last Western Canada Summer Games, and “it was a perfect note to end on,” she said.  

The team, who worked together to create their own pairings for each game, is just as happy. “Everyone has had so much fun this week and we all bonded so well, we felt confident in everyone,” said Liu (team captain).