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AISG JV Badminton team poses at Nanjing. Nanjing International School Photographer
From April 17-20, AISG’s Junior Varsity Badminton team was in Nanjing for AISG’s first badminton ACAMIS since pre-covid times. The team of 8 traveled to Nanjing on an early morning flight on Wednesday, April 17th. The tournament started on Thursday at the Nanjing International School (NIS), and ended on Saturday.
Many of the players’ first impressions of ACAMIS was that it was a very big tournament. “There were a lot of schools with around 200 badminton players participating”, said grade 10 Doreen, one of the players from our team. “It was one of the biggest tournament we ever participated in.”
Since the tournament consisted of 200 people, the tournament was organized so that there were 3 brackets. “First two days were round robin, and then all the schools were distributed into the cup, shield, or plate brackets. We were placed in the plate bracket,” said Doreen.
Another player, grade 10 Carson, reflected on his performance on the first day. He said, “I think that I could have performed better. On the first day, I made many mistakes during all of my matches resulting in extra losses I could have avoided.”
Although the players travelled to Nanjing solely for the tournament, during their down time, the team got the chance to visit tourist spots to learn about the culture of Nanjing. This trip was very memorable to them, as Carson recalled, “the highlight of my trip was traveling to Confucius temple. We got to learn a little of Nanjing’s culture.”
The badminton players participated in many different types of games. In total, our players participated in mixed doubles, girls singles/doubles, and boys singles/doubles games.
But each player had one game that was hard for them to forget. For Doreen, it was her quarter finals with the International School of Beijing (ISB) for the plate. AISG’s mixed doubles, girls singles/doubles, and boys singles/doubles teams all competed with ISB.
“It was a very close game with 2-2 as the team score, leaving the result of the girls doubles game as our key to advance to the semi finals,” said Doreen.
She also mentioned the team spirit and encouragement that was demonstrated during this match. “All of us gathered together, encouraging our girls doubles team. We were very desperate to advance to semi finals or else we would have not had any chance to play any more games the next day.”
“When the game was over with our girls doubles team gaining the victory for the team, we all ran into the court to cheer our girls doubles team,” Doreen said, recalling the victorious moment for the AISG team.
For another player, grade 9 Zak, the most memorable moment was the “last round robin game because my partner and I won”. Although he reminisced on winning the last round robin game, he said: “we could have won almost all our matches”.
Similarly, Carson’s most memorable game was also his last match. “I lost the game but I realized that I needed to put more work into my backhand”, he said.
After the tournament was over and the players were ready to go home, they suddenly received the news that their flight on Saturday was delayed due to the weather in Guangzhou. Shortly after, their Saturday flight was cancelled, so their flight was rescheduled to Sunday.
Having heard the news that they would need to extend their stay in Nanjing, some players were extremely enthusiastic. Zak said that his first thought was: “yay we might not have to go to school on Monday”.
Likewise, Doreen said, “When we heard that our Saturday night flight got cancelled, we were not as bothered as we already experienced our initial flight being cancelled.” She also mentioned the positive response the team had to the delay. “Our team joked about going on an overnight train ride, playing card games and pillow fights, playing badminton on our beds. We were more excited by the fact that we will be staying in Nanjing for one more day, and will have the chance to go tour the city.”
On the other hand, Carson was not bothered by the change of plans. He said, “I felt nothing special. There’s no point in feeling anything as it wouldn’t change the results.”
Overall, the AISG JV badminton team had an unforgettable experience at ACAMIS in Nanjing, which was made even more special by the flight delay and size of the tournament.
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