Four teams, Trinity College Dublin, TU Dublin, National College of Ireland and Technological University Shannon Midlands assembled in Baldoyle Badminton Centre on Wednesday March 6th for the semi-finals of the Student Sport Ireland and Badminton Ireland Cup.
Both TU Dublin and National College of Ireland had only won their quarter finals the previous night, so were going in with badminton fresh in them to the last four. TU Dublin who were beaten finalists in the league earlier this year made sure of a place in the final as they triumphed 5-0 over TUS Midlands winning all their matches in straight sets.
National College of Ireland spearheaded by Asish Mathai who won the Men’s singles gave them an early lead over Trinity College Dublin as he defeated Peng Ang in one of the games of the day on a 21-12, 19-21, 21-17 scoreline. It was as good as it got for National College of Ireland as Trinity College took the four remaining matches in the contest to advance to the final 4-1.
In the 3rd/4th place play off there was drama a plenty as National College of Ireland eventually got the better of TUS Midlands on a 3-2 score line.
The final promised to be a very good encounter and began with the men’s singles and Conor Bradley got TU Dublin off to the perfect start with a 21-10, 21-9 win over Peng Nan. Next into the action were the ladies singles combination of Gang Lingyy (Trinty) and Leah Auld (TU Dublin). This game was on a knife edge from start to finish with some fantastic badminton played by two top players, before Gang Lingyy got home with a 21-19, 21-19 win to tie the match up at 1-1.
The men’s doubles proved to be another superb match and Erwin Guam and Peng Ang from Trinity College closed out an epic first set 22-20, and with momentum in their side they powered to a 21-13 win in the second set over TU Dublin pair Conor Bradley and Sean Patrick Laureta.
With Trinity College now 2-1 in front in the contest the ladies doubles was briefly delayed as a power outage in the area left the court in darkness, thankfully power was restored within 15 minutes and a brilliant ladies doubles contest followed and it was a victory here for Gang Lingyy and Anastasia Bogoslovskaya from Trinity College that guaranteed the match for their side, as they got over the line 21-17, 21-15 against strong TU Dublin duo Caoimhe McKeown and Leah Auld.
With the match result already put to bed the mixed doubles contest turned into exhibition stuff from the players, with the smiles and banter between the players showing what is all good about 3rd level student sport as Trinity closed out with a 4-1 success for the match.
Erwin Guan captain of Trinity College Dublin received the cup at the end, as his side will now aim to complete a clean sweep for the season with the Badminton Intervarsity coming up in early April in Maynooth University.