PAN AM JUNIORS – Ouyang defends as Canada takes 4

Qingzi Ouyang once again led Canada’s youngsters to 4 of 5 titles at the Pan Am Junior Badminton Championships.

By Don Hearn.  Photo: Yves Lacroix for Badmintonphoto (archives)

2015 champion Qingzi Ouyang of Canada returned to defend her title this weekend at the Pan Am Junior Badminton Championships in Lima, Peru.  Having beaten her opponent from last year’s girls’ singles final, Jamie Hsu of the United States, in the semi-final, Ouyang enjoyed an easy win over Hsu’s team-mate Jennie Gai on Saturday to repeat as champion.

Just as they did last year, the Canadians romped to 4 of 5 titles, this time adding to the mixed team gold they had claimed earlier in the week.  The only final that didn’t feature a Canadian was the boys’ singles, where Cleyson Nobre Santos of Brazil won in three over Gokul Kalyanasundaram of the U.S.

Ouyang limited her involvement this year to the singles, whereas last year she had made the podium in all three events.  She made the trip to Lima after playing two Grand Prix events north of the equator.  An even greater void was that left by last year’s triple winner and current Pan Am men’s singles champion Jason Ho-Shue, who did not return for this year’s edition, even though he is still eligible for under-19 events.

Seemingly in Jason’s stead came his 15-year-old sister Katie to help dominate the podium.  She and Brian Yang, actually pulled off a doubles tripod, winning together, in mixed, and separately, in girls’ and boys’ doubles respectively.

Their mixed opponents, Vinson Chiu and Jamie Hsu of the U.S., had each lost to their Canadian counterpart in level doubles earlier in the week.

Final results
BD:  Desmond Wang / Brian Yang (CAN) beat Ricky Liuzhou / Cadmus Yeo (USA)  17-21, 21-15, 21-13
BS:  Cleyson Nobre Santos (BRA) beat Gokul Kalyanasundaram (USA)  21-16, 16-21, 21-19
GS:  Qingzi Ouyang (CAN) [2] beat Jennie Gai (USA)  21-6, 21-9
GD:  Giselle Chan / Katie Ho-Shue (CAN) beat Jackeline Luz / Amanda Santos (BRA)  21-13, 21-10
XD:  Brian Yang / Katie Ho-Shue (CAN) beat Vinson Chiu / Jamie Hsu (USA) [3]  21-14, 21-14

Click here for complete results