Lucas Punkari
Local badminton player Taylor Whitehead has been ousted from two flights of competition at the 2011 Junior National Badminton Championships in Richmond, B.C. but still was alive in the U14 boys’ doubles consolation event heading today’s action.
Whitehead, 12, and his partner, Andre Inthavong of Saskachewan, were taking part in the boys’ doubles consolation quarter-final round this morning against Adrien Chan and Justin Law from Ontario.
The winner of that match then was to face Alberta’s Riley Chan and his Ontario-based partner, Bryan Poon, in the semi-finals this afternoon.
Whitehead and Inthavong were knocked out of the main bracket yesterday morning after dropping a straight-set decision to Simon Cheng and Felix Law of B.C.
Meanwhile, the Fort Frances native saw his run in the singles competition come to an end yesterday afternoon after he lost to Nathan Lau (Ontario) in straight sets in the consolation quarter-finals.
Whitehead had defeated Ethan Ma (B.C.) and Jean-Sebastian Giroux (Quebec) earlier in the day after having fallen by Jeffery So (B.C.) in the main draw Tuesday.
The mixed doubles run for Whitehead and his Alberta-based partner, Dawn Song, was short-lived.
They lost to Samuel Goh (Ontario) and Samantha Zheng (B.C.) in the opening round of the main draw Wednesday, then dropped their consolation round match-up to the Alberta duo of Desmond Wang and Erin O’Donoghue yesterday.