Well, the past 2 weeks has been pretty nuts.. First off was the
Atwater International which was held in Montreal. The tournament started off pretty
shakey because the draws didn't come out the night before qualifications. Also, there were only 2 courts available for the whole tournament which made keeping the schedule on time rather difficult. Having 2 courts to share for practice wasn't much fun either.
Well, I'm gonna keep things short. I'm bored and can't seem to sit still, hehehe... I lost to Netherlands in the semi-finals in men's doubles. Yeah they were good, but I felt that Adrian and I didn't play anywhere near our potential. I wish we could have gave the Dutch a harder game. For my mixed, I played with a new parther, Xuelian Jiang (Lydia). We made it to the final pretty easily but lost to Toby and Grace 26-24 in the 3rd game. Uggh.. twice in a row losing to them in the finals, 3rd game.. in deuce!! Crap!! But I give them props, they played much better than they did in Peru.
Well, after my finals, I trained over to Toronto to compete in my Nationals. The tournament overlapped so it was pretty hectic trying to settle in and get ready to play. I honestly did not feel like playing Nationals. I did not feel like playing badminton at all. I think it was a mix of being burnt out from training, traveling, competing, and just ending my almost 3 year relationship as I arrived into Toronto.. Yeah, that's just another story to tell.. Anywho, let's keep this blog about badminton..
This Nationals was huuge. I think 400+ kids, making this the biggest tournament in Canada. It was held at Humber College and as I walked into this tuna fish jammed can, I felt like I was waay too old to play cuz all I saw were kids running around.. The first 2 days, I was impressed with the organization and how smoothly the tournament was going. It was not until the semi-finals I started to get a little ticked.. They scheduled my doubles match and my mixed doubles match back to back. I only had a 15 minute break if even.. They did that so they wouldn't have to have women's doubles last. What a joke. I lost my semi's to Alex and Michelle. Afterward was the banquet. Now I was looking forward to this banquet because there was gonna be "fun" activities, prizes to give away and good food being catered by Mandarin. Well, since they did not have any god damn shuttles, I had to wait for a ride from one of the parents to drive me to the hotel so I could shower. By the time I got back to the hotel, showered, and back to Humber for the banquet, I was already an hour late. But it was okay.. why? Because I walked in, yeah, there was still food.. but I wasnt really missing much. The banquet consisted of tables in the middle of the hallway with food, and just people sitting on the floors eating. Wow.. What a joke. So I went and grabbed some food. I don't know if this is what Toronto people are use to but this chinese food was crap. It was just all fried westernized chinese food. And @#$%!! Still pissed there were no tables or even chairs to sit on. What are we? Animals??! The night ended with a stupid "heads or tails" game for a prize.. FML! Worst banquet I have been to. Sorry, but that is the truth. Finals the next day for doubles. I was scheduled for 945AM. I got there, only 3 courts, and I was 15th court available with matches starting at 9am. How the hell are they going to have 15 games on and finished in 45 minutes. I swear they scheduled it that way so all players would be there early so games would run smoothly. Well you know what? That is trickery and VERY unprofessional. I will email Kyle Hunter about that.. I did not play until 1240 which is almost 3 hours later.. 4 hours if you consider me getting there an hour before my match.. The courts were also crap. They had these cheap RSL mats made out of powder or sumthing.. I dont know.. everybody was slipping and people were getting sore and injured. I ended up losing in the finals but shit, this tournament means shit to me.
Final words on Nationals.. To the organizer.. There has been research done that even if the first 95% is pain free, but the last 5% is hella painful, the person would consider the whole experience as painful as the last 5%. So yeah, the tournament ran nicely and was all nice and good in the beginning, but hell, did the last 2 days of the tournament leave a very bitter taste in my mouth. So if I were to rate this nationals out of 10, I would rate this tournament a 6/10.
Well, since I'm burnt like toast, I will be taking the next week off entirely to relax and recoup myself. My mental feels pretty drained and I'm just gonna take it easy. You readers should too. Take it easy and thanks for reading.
Btw, Happy early Mother's Day!
