CALABAR High defeated Haile Selassie High 3-0 and St. Andrew High beat St. Hugh's High 3-1 to win the Cable &Wireless Badminton KO titles on Saturday at the G. C. Foster College gym.
Defending boys' champions Calabar took the court against the tournament's number two seed, Haile Selassie, in the opening battle.
Calabar's captain Vishwanauth Tolan, Jamaica's top male (under 19) junior, opened the proceedings against the relatively unknown Toussainte Taylor of Haile Selassie. Tolan took the first set 15-2 but galvanised by the cheers of his teammates, the 14-year-old Taylor came storming back to take the second set 15-11. The greater experience of Tolan proved decisive in the third set as he got home 15-9 to put Calabar 1-0-up in the best of five tie.
In the second match Calabar's Wilroy Myles lost the first set 15-12 to Haile Selassie's Shawn Forrester but hit back to win the second and third sets 15-7, 15-10.
In the third match Calabar's Che Beckford ensured a shut-out for his team by beating Haile Selassie's Dwight Simpson 15-8, 15-11.
The girls' final which started after the boys' first match, had Simone James representing the defending champion, St. Andrew, and Shawnett Davis of St. Hugh's getting the action under way. In an exciting encounter Davis won 11-5, 11-4 to give St. Hugh's a 1-0 lead.
EASY MATCHES
St. Andrew won the next two matches relatively easily as first 15-year-old Shenelle Peart, who is the current All Jamaica senior champion, defeated Donna-Kay Nelson 15-1, 15-0 and then Peart and Tara Hoo defeated Sabrina Cain and Keri-Ann Foster 15-4, 15-6 to give them a 2-1 lead.
Davis, the St. Hugh's captain, returned with Cain in the second doubles pairing, to try getting her team back on level terms against St. Andrew's captain, Ruth-Ann Simpson and Hoo. Hoo and Simpson won 15-8, 11-15, 17-14.
To get to the final, St. Andrew defeated Haile Selassie 3-0 while St. Hugh's had a walkover. This gave the Haile Selassie girls third place. For the boys, Jamaica College were awarded third place as Campion College failed to show for their third place play-off.
Other results (girls):
Round 2 Haile Selassie defeated Westwood 3-0;
Quarter-finals St. Andrew defeated DeCarteret College 3-0,
Haile Selassie defeated Immacu-late 3-1 and St. Hugh's defeated Wolmer's 3-0.
Philip Hamilton, corporate communications manager of Cable and Wireless Jamaica, presented the trophies to the first and second place finishers. The Rachel Ellis trophy for the most outstanding player was awarded to the St. Andrew captain, Ruth-Ann Simpson and presented by Jamaica Badminton Association (JBA) president, Vishu Tolan.
Miss Ellis, after whom the trophy is named, is a past president of the JBA who worked extensively in the administration of the youth tournaments and also served as secretary of the JBA for many years.
