Chargers sink Gladiators to win Inter Club tourney
Event lived up to expectation
KUWAIT CITY, April 4: The Third IBAK Inter Club Badminton Tournament 2017, billed as the ‘clash of the clubs’ lived up to the expectation of the spectators.
The test of the best among the best badminton clubs in Kuwait turned out to be a spectacle for badminton lovers.
The summit clash to decide the champions was a see-saw battle in which upsets ruled the day.
Finally the tie was settled in the Mixed Doubles match when one of the IBAK ‘coaching’ module trainees Niyathi Pradeep and her coach Ilayaraja paired to beat Shaina and Chandramouli in straight sets.
This is how the IBAK Chargers became the champions defeating IBAK Gladiators in finals.
Men Doubles ‘One’ Elibin Francis and Ilaya Raja beat Sayooj Ajayakumar Bibin Mathew 19-21, 21-11; in the Men Doubles ‘Two’ Sarin Joseph and Aneef Latheef beat Yashin Bose and Dr Tamer Rafat 16-21, 21-15, 13-21; in the Men Doubles ‘Three’ Subin Joy and Subin Varghese beat Arif Aktar which was held in a round robin cum knock-out format. The teams were: IBAK Chargers, IBCK, IBAK Gladiators, Kerala Badminton Association, IBAK Vikings, Abbassiya Tuskers, Crossfire Mangaf and Bavans Badminton Club.
The teams were ranked and pooled into two groups of four each. The four teams then took part in a round robin format to decide the semifinalists; the top two teams from each group going through.
The top team from Group A met the second team from Group B and vice versa. The league format produced some wonderful hard fought matches and in the end IBAK Chargers and Crossfire Mangaf, emerged number 1 and 2 respectively in Group A while the IBAK Gladiators and IBCK emerged number 1 and 2 respectively in Group B.
The stage was then set for an exciting battle and the matches were moved to the synthetic court; the first of its kind in Kuwait. The court was provided by the Kuwait Badminton Federation, courtesy, the BAC (Badminton Asia Confederation).
All the players were excited play on the synthetic surface which improves court movement and grip. The battle for glory produced some mouth-watering badminton skills.
The tie team format comprised of 5 matches (2 Open Men’s Doubles, 1 Men’s Advanced Doubles, 1 Mixed Doubles, 1 Men’s Above 40 Doubles).
The IBAK chargers proved too strong for IBCK and emerged victorious in the 1st semifinal while the IBAK Gladiators managed to upset the better fancied team of Crossfire Mangaf. of 3min 06.7sec over Chilean rider Pablo Quintanilla.
Frenchman Pierre Alexandre Renet knew it would never be easy to open the road with such top class competition and the Husqvarna rider finished the Al-Ain Water-backed stage in fifth and holds a similar position in the rankings behind the leading duo, KTM’s Matthias Walkner and Honda’s Paolo Goncalves. Emirati Mohammed Al-Balooshi climbed to seventh position.
Sunderland said: “It was a good day. I started back in sixth and I caught all the guys before the refuel, which I was really happy about. At the start I couldn’t see everyone after the start and I started to feel a little nervous so see whether I was catching them or not. You don’t know. I got to the refuel and I saw them just before me. After that it was good and I kind of cruised back. It was a bit windy out there. It all looks the same. There are thousands of dunes. You recognise landmarks from before and bits and pieces, but it gives you no advantage because every dune is different. I feel happy. I felt fast this morning.”
Al-Attiyah and French co-driver Matthieu Baumel stormed to the car stage win in cooler and windier conditions in their Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux. The Qatari now heads Abu Dhabi Racing’s Sheikh Khalid Al-Qassimi by 39min 38sec with two days remaining.
“Today, the same,” said Al-Attiyah. “The car is working very well - a perfect stage for us. There is no advantage to coming here before. This is the desert. It is always changing. Saying that, it was much cooler today in the car. We do not have air conditioning. We saw 51 degrees yesterday. Today was better and it also gives more performance from the engine. Two days to go, but we will drive at the same pace. It’s a good pace.”
Al-Qassimi was upbeat after his first four days in the new Peugeot 3008 DKR. “It was not easy terrain and the organisers told me to go a certain way and we got stuck over there. We did not lose much time and deflated the tyres. It was very difficult to drive in that area. We lost some time until we found the route. After passing the bivouac we made a mistake when we took a different line and we drove inside the fence. We made another mistake about 50km from the end. It was windy and we went off the piste that you could see. You could not see the track and we tried to find a better way. We are still second overall today and for the rally.
Stephan Scott makes his final approach into Moreeb.