Lucas Punkari
After travelling to Richmond, B.C. last year to participate in his first Yonex Junior National badminton championship, Fort Frances native Taylor Whitehead was looking forward to taking on the top players in the country once again.
The 13-year-old, who is in Grade 8 at J.W. Walker School here, was in Moncton, N.B. last week for his second-straight appearance at the nationals—and came away feeling quite pleased.
“Overall, I thought the experience there was much better this time around,” Whitehead noted.
“As I had been there before, I knew what I was up against this time around and I was comfortable playing those kind people this year,” he explained.
“For example, last year I played against Jeffery So from British Columbia and I only got 10 points in the games, but this year our matches were a lot closer.”
Whitehead, who competes in the under-14 division, began singles play with a straight-set win over Chris Jiang of Nova Scotia (21-15/21-19) before falling in two sets to So (15-21/17-21).
“I thought I played pretty good in both [matches], especially in the first [one] that I was able to win,” he recalled.
“Jeffery So was one of the top five players going into the tournament, and I was able to get a decent amount of points on him and I was also almost able to win a game, which I thought was pretty good.”
Then in the under-14 boys’ doubles events, Whitehead teamed up with New Brunswick’s Kael Boucher, but they lost both of their matches to Paul Brown and Felix Tessier (7-21/11-21) and to Nathan Lau and Maric Son (9-21/12-21).
“The teams that we lost to were both tough teams,” Whitehead reasoned.
“It’s harder to try and get to know a player when you haven’t played together before,” he noted.
“[But] even though we kind of had different styles, we were able to quickly around it and got used to each other quickly.”
Whitehead enjoyed more success in the mixed doubles competition with Toronto’s Emily Wheeler, defeating Son and Jodi Fei in three sets (17-21, 21-19, and 21-14) before falling to Xavier Laperriere and Alyson Ruan in two sets (18-21/14-21).
“Going into our first [match] against Son and Fei, I knew that we had a shot at beating those guys,” Whitehead said.
“Even though we lost our first [set], I talked things out with my partner and we thought up some new strategies, which we used to find a way to win the next two [sets] and win the match.
“The team that we lost to was a highly-ranked team, but I thought that we had a decent shot of beating them, too,” added Whitehead.
“We just fell behind a little bit,” he sighed.
With no more matches slated until the fall, Whitehead will be looking to improve on his game during the summer months.
He plans to make a trip to Winnipeg to take part in a couple of badminton camps.
“I’ve found from going there in the past that it has helped my game progress quite a lot, as the best coaches are in Winnipeg to make us become better players,” Whitehead remarked.
“For myself, the things that I would like to improve on would be with my basic tactics and in being more consistent on my shots,” he stressed.
“Seeing the older players play at the nationals really opened up my eyes a bit more.”
