Established by Filipinos living in Southern California, originally as a small group of recreational badminton players, the Philippine Badminton Club of America (PBCA) has evolved into a big and diversified group of fun-loving, friendly and family-oriented sports enthusiasts who love and play the game of badminton with passion, skill and a healthy dose of competitiveness.
PBCA kid Jedd Perea was champion in the boys singles and mixed doubles, both in the under 9 division, during the 2012 Southern California Regional Junior Ranking Tournament held March 17 & 18 at the San Gabriel Valley Badminton Club 2 in Pomona. Jedd is currently under training at the Global Badminton Academy with Tony Gunawan and Eric Go as coaches. He is also the youngest son of PBCA members Gerry and Rachel Perea. Seen in picture with Jedd on the champions' podium is Kodi Lee, who was Jedd's mixed doubles partner and daughter of Harry Lee and Garrie Tang, who are also PBCA members.
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Team USA qualifies for the
Thomas & Uber Cup Finals
Team USA (from left): Howard Bach, Tony Gunawan, Phillip Chew, Coach Zimin Cai, Rena Wang, Iris Wang, Jaime Subandhi, Nicolas Jinadasa, Sattawat Pongnairat & Howard Hsu. (Photo by Vince Law)
The US badminton team proved its dominance in the Pan-American region after its men's team for the Thomas Cup snatched victory from Guatemala in the just concluded preliminary matches for the Thomas and Uber Cup, held February 17-19 at the Los Angeles Badminton Club in El Monte, California.
Victory for the US men’s team did not come easy as it ranked second only in its group after suffering three losses on day two in men’s singles against Guatemala’s team, which emerged number one in Group B. The US worked doubly hard for a chance to meet Guatemala again in the semi-finals by scoring 3-0 against Canada, after the latter emerged unopposed in Group A. In their second and final face off, US finally defeated Guatemala.
In the Uber Cup, the US women’s team cruised to victory after winning all its matches. It played its final match against the toughest team in the draw, Canada, against whom it won its ticket to China.
The Thomas and Uber Cups are the men and women’s world team championships, respectively, which are held by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) biennially. The Thomas Cup started in 1948 and was conceived by the international badminton organization’s first president Sir George Thomas, who is himself a legendary badminton player. The Uber Cup, on the other hand, started in 1956 and was conceived by another well-known player Betty Uber.
The other regions where preliminaries were held at about the same dates (except Africa whose preliminaries will be held on the last week of February) are Europe, Asia and Oceania. Team USA will compete against the winning teams of the other regions for the finals in Wuhan, China on May 20-27.
The countries that participated in the Pan-Am preliminaries are USA, Canada, Barbados, Suriname, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Guatemala, and Jamaica.
The US men’s team members are Tony Gunawan, Howard Bach, Sattawat Pongnairat, Nicolas Jinadasa, Phllip Chew and Howard Shu. The US women’s team members are Eva Lee, Paula Lynn Obañana, Iris Wang, Jamie Subandhi and Rena Wang.
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Sparrows regains title
in Carlo’s Cup LA 2012
Sparrows team members erupted in cheeers and jubilation after they defeated the Express.
In the fourth installment of PBCA’s traditional team tournament held March 10 at the Arcadia Badminton Club, the NCR Sparrows made a victorious swoop by retaking the title it originally won in Is-Mashan 2010.
After remaining low key for two consecutive team tournaments, Aguilas became the most favored team to snatch the title from two-term champion Thunders. The draw somehow dampened the excitement when Aguilas was pitted against Thunders as early as Event 1, which resulted in neck and neck fight between the two teams at a score of 7-6 in favor of Aguilas. Not to be outdone, the battle between Sparrows and Robins in the same event took a similar outcome at a score of 7-6 in favor of Robins.
It was too early to predict the outcome at that point due to the close scores, but things started taking an ugly turn for Aguilas and Thunders in Event 2 when they faced Express and Sparrows, respectively. The two expectant finalists took severe beatings when both Express and Sparrows scored 9 out of 4 against Aguilas and Thunders in their respective matches.
With this unexpected twist, Sparrows and Express have moved up the chart as they continued their winning streaks in succeeding events. Defending champion Thunders desperately tried to gain more points to catch up in succeeding events. The roar of Thunders, however, was not strong enough when, although it put up a good match in Event 3, Express overtook it by winning the two-pointer match in B/C women’s doubles resulting in a final score of 7-6 in favor of Express.
In Event 5, Thunders hoped to sweep all matches against Robins and for Express to do the same thing against Sparrows for it to be able to qualify for the finals, but that was a tall order. As things turned out, Robins fought Thunders hard, if only to get out of its curse of being at the bottom ranking for three consecutive terms already. Thunders’s one-point lead only over Robins, not to mention Sparrows’s 5-point score in Event 5, failed to close its huge deficit to get into the finals.
Meanwhile, Aguilas bounced back at 9-4 over Robins in Event 3, but only to be dealt a severe blow again in Event 4 when it only got 4 points against Sparrows. Like Thunders, Aguilas hoped for a huge loss by Sparrows in Event 5 as its members expectantly await the results after finishing all their four events. As history would have it, Aguilas’s hope came to naught.
In the team relay finals, the atmosphere was electrified with cheers and excitement from both sides and the audience. The opposing teams, Sparrows and Express, started out in close matches with Sparrows making a lead of one to two points during the first 30 points. Then Express went into full throttle when Lonie Galarpe joined William Chan for the C men’s doubles against Lee Medina and Ken Lau, followed by Jackie Kho and Lonie Galarpe against Jacky Myers and Ken Lau in B/C mixed doubles, then Jackie Kho and Melanie Tabili against Jacky Myers and Virra Ratonel in B/C women’s doubles, then Melanie Tabili and Chino Castellano versus Virra Ratonel and John Wang in C/C mixed doubles, until Express passed the Sparrows’s flight at a lead of more than 15 points.
“I was about to pack my things and leave,” Sparrows team captain Sammy Ponnusamy said in jest in looking back at that harrowing moment for his team. And then in a reversal of fortune, things suddenly took an exciting turn for the Sparrows when John Wang was joined by Victor Fernandez in C/D men’s doubles against Express’s Chino Castellano and John So at 80 points. The Sparrows started pounding the Express point by point, especially when Kat Ton joined Victor Fernandez against Express’s John So and Marivic Austria in D/D mixed doubles, followed by Kat Ton and Clemen Baladad versus Marivic Austria and Mabel Villanueva in D/D women’s doubles.
By the time the higher level players entered the matches, it became just too tough for the Express to overcome the huge lead made by the Sparrows. The final score was 150-137. It will be recalled that Express also ended as the runner-up during its final match against Thunders in Is-Mashan 2011.
Proud Sparrows team members displaying their trophies.
