Saratoga News

Sports

Hwang first, Hur second in badminton finals

By Mike Barnhart

After coming oh, so close to winning the girls doubles crown during the 2005 Central Coast Section badminton championships, Connie Hwang of Lynbrook didn't leave anything to chance at this year's event, May 16-18 at Monta Vista.

A year ago, Hwang and doubles teammate Amy Chao won four straight matches and were sitting pretty as the only unbeaten team before being knocked off twice in a row by Saratoga's Sophia Law and Vicky Liu.

This year, as the top seed in the girls singles bracket, Hwang lived up to her ranking and beat out 13 other girls for the title.

After a first-round bye, Hwang won four straight matches in the double-elimination tournament, including two in a row against runner-up Emily Hur of Saratoga.

Meanwhile in boys singles, Monta Vista junior Emanuel Pun captured his third straight crown.

Like Hwang, Pun followed up a first-round bye and backed up his status as the top seed by winning four matches in a row. He topped Homestead's Terrence Pang in the winners' bracket final, before dumping El Camino's Wing Wong for the championship.

Pang, who entered the boys singles event as the No. 2 seed, won three of his four matches and finished third. Kevin Hur of Saratoga won three of five contests and placed fourth.

Lynbrook's Eric Huang and Carol Chen entered the mixed doubles event as the top seed. After two wins, they bowed to Quach-Nguyen and Chow-Wen and settled for third place.

Monta Vista's Matthew Yu and Annie Huang, who lost their opener to the eventual winner, then won three in a row before being ousted, finished tied for fifth.

Saratoga's girls doubles team of Caroline Cherng and Theresa Lin captured second place with a 3-2 record.

Monta Vista's Qian Chang and Yijia Yang placed fourth, also with a 3-2 mark.