Three seasons of frustration at the B.C. School Sports provincial badminton tournament has ended for the Fraser Heights Firehawks.
The Surrey high school won the gold medal earlier this month in Richmond, winning two girls doubles matches to close out the tournament with a 6-5 victory over Vancouver College/Little Flower Academy in the championship match.
After a seventh place finish at the 2009 tournament, Fraser Heights lost a close 6-5 decision in the semifinal round a year later. Last season, they struggled to a 12th place finish.
The Firehawks dominated three rivals in round robin play, defeating Mt. Baker of Cranbrook 11-0, South Kamloops 10-1 and Vancouver’s Prince of Wales 7-4. A 9-2 quarterfinal victory over Claremont of Victoria and a 6-5 triumph over St. George’s/Crofton House in the semifinal set up the showdown with Vancouver College/Little Flower.
The Firehawks started strong, taking a quick 4-0 lead on wins by two boys doubles teams (Peter Huang/Harryson Hu and Jason Wong/Collin Yan) and a pair of girls doubles pairs (Christin Tsai/Angel Lee and Julia Ho/Cindy Nguyen). Fraser Heights dropped the next five contests, and were a loss away from elimination before two more wins in girls doubles clinched the first provincial championship in school history.
Other team members were James Ho, Collin Yan, Curtis Hu, and Yuti Pan on the boys side, and girls players Jenna Wong, Aneka Lu, and Paula Tao.