Badminton stars hunt Solo titles

THE nation’s leading badminton stars are in the hunt for top honours in the Solo Senior Championships organised by the Trinidad and Tobago Badminton Association.

Defending singles champions Anil Seepaul and Sabrina Cassie advanced to the final of their respective categories in contrasting fashion at the Jean Pierre Sports Complex, Wrightson Road, on Wednesday night. While women champion Cassie outplayed former national junior champion Nadine Julien at 11-1 and 11-1, three-time men’s title holder Seepaul had to pull out all stops to conquer 20-year-old Surujadeen Mohammed in two hard-fought games 15-6 and 15-11.

In the other singles semis, Zeudi Mack who won the recent TTBA Open Championships triple crown including her first win over arch-rival Sabrina Cassie in nine years, was forced to call upon all her experience to turn back Stephanie Mitchell’s challenge. Mitchell won the first set 9-11, but Mack soon found her rhythm and clinched the game and match 11-4, 11-3 and will face-off with her national doubles partner in the final.

Kerwyn Pantin proved too much for former veteran champion David Lee Kim and won easily 15-6 and 15-1. He will be up against Seepaul whom he battled with in the Open Championships final. The Cassie and Mack tandem must be highly-favoured to retain their doubles crown against the Mitchell/Julien combination. However, there will be much more intense rivalry and gripping tension when Cassie and Mack face each other for the singles title and the mixed doubles showdown.

Cassie and former senior champion Ronald Clarke will pair off against the Mack/Seepaul team in the mixed doubles title match. Seepaul and Mack prevailed in the March-month Open Championships and on Wednesday evening they stopped the Mohammed/Mitchell combination 15-5, 15-5. Once they maintained their consistency, they could hold the edge.  But the Clarke/Cassie duo will be fighting all the way to topple their opponents as they did to the Pantin/Benito pair whom they overshadowed at 15-7 and 15-4. All winners and runner-up will be presented with Solo trophies and medals donated by Joseph Charles Bottling Company, San Juan.