Seepaul still national badminton king

ANIL SEEPAUL defied all the odds and proved his class as he created history by retaining the national badminton triple crown for the fourth year, when the Trinidad and Tobago Badminton Association Solo National Senior Championships concluded at the Central Regional Indoor Sports Arena (CRISA). Seepaul was forced to miss the Easter Championships due to the death of his father Hardeo Sipaul and experienced much problems on his job in getting time-off to train for tournaments and be able to represent the country at regional competitions.

But the lion-hearted Seepaul took on his national doubles partner Kerwyn Pantin who recently returned from specialised training in Cuba on Thursday night and beat him in straight sets. Pantin won the Easter Championships with the triple crown but he just could not stop the power and craft of the experienced Seepaul who reeled off superb drop shots and power smashes to retain his national singles title with a convincing 15-4 and 15-8 victory. It was Seepaul’s fifth consecutive national singles crown and he was extremely delighted with the victory.

Later he said: “In light of all that I have been through during this period with the death of my father and problems at work, I am really happy to prove myself as still the best badminton player in the country. “ I have not been able to train as I would wish but I decided to play a different game in the final. The strategy worked well and I want to give thanks to God for helping me through all this and to bring me more success on the court. “Everybody was expecting me to play a fast game but I changed the strategy and it worked to my advantage as I was able to control the game and win back the title which I have won for the fifth consecutive time. This victory was more special because of what I have been through in the last couple months.”

Together with partner Ronald Clarke, Seepaul also retained the doubles title with a hard fought victory over Pantin and Jewhel Smith who took the first set 10-15. But Seepaul and Clarke combined beautifully to recapture the momentum and title 15-6 and 15-11. Seepaul first won the national triple crown in 2000 and retained it in 2001. He won two of the three titles in 2002 but bounced back last year to regain the honour. Seepaul teamed up with his regular mixed doubles partner Zeudi Mack to notch their seventh consective national championships title with a comfortable 15-6 and 15-6 victory over the Pantin and Kesma Benito tandem.

In the women singles final, Benito was crowned the new national champion in the absence of seven-time winner Sabrina Cassie who was forced to miss all tournaments because of surgery on  her injured knee at the Pan-American Games last September. Benito overpowered the experienced Mack in their exciting three-setter which ended 11-6 and 11-8. But the Mack-Benito pair bowed to the newly-crowned women champion pair of Stephanie Mitchell and Nadine Julien who outlasted their rivals with a come from behind 9-15, 15-13, 15-2 victory.