U.S. Nationals – Double joy for Subandhi

Jamie Subandhi was crowned in women’s singles event and scooped silver in the mixed in the U.S. National Championships which were held in Orange County, California. Subandhi beat Christine Yang in the final, but the clash expected against former Singapore national player Zhang Beiwen didn’t happen as the latter had not fulfilled the conditions to play – she had been living in the USA for 11 months instead of the required full year. In the mixed doubles, Subandhi was finalist in the event with Philipp Chew, but this time, the opponents that she and her partner were supposed to play – Halim Haryanto and Hong Jing Yu were disqualified half way through the competition, in the semi-final stage, just before Subandhi and Chew were to play against them.

Controversy

In spite of having checked all needed documents at the beginning of the competition (U.S. Residency for one year), the organizers disqualified Hong. Some sources said that not all information in the original passport had shown up in the copy she had given earlier, and proved that she had gone away from the USA for more than the time allowed for simple vacations; Once this was discovered, it led to the disqualification of the pair, which led to some arguments amongst Hong’s supporters and a competition ending in a controversy.

The men’s singles event was won by Lee Hock Lai while Tony Gunawan and Christian Christianto won the men’s doubles and Eva Lee and Paula Obanana won the event in women’s doubles.

All results HERE