Happy Cheng Sin-yan Serena of Diocesan Girls' School defended her title in the girls' singles event.Diocesan Girls’ School and Diocesan Boys’ School were crowned champions in the singles events at the All Hong Kong Schools Jing Ying Badminton Tournament final on Monday, as both schools successfully defended their singles titles. Meanwhile La Salle College and Heep Yunn School came out on top in the doubles events.
Happy Cheng Sin-yan Serena and supporters of Diocesan Girls’ School (DGS) were put through an emotional rollercoaster ride during the girls’ singles final match as Happy, the defending champion, almost surrendered her throne to Heep Yunn School’s Liu Ho-yan.
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Happy won the first game with ease by beating Liu 21-9. In the second game, Happy established an early lead but dropped the ball on the last few points and let Liu come back from behind to take the set 21-18.
Happy and Liu took turns to take the lead in the last game, but Liu scored ten points in a row to reach match point first. However, Happy refused to give up and fought back from a four point deficit to tie the match at 20. The match was forced into a deuce, and it was Happy who would emerge as the ultimate champion.
Speaking to the media after the thrilling match, Happy said staying calm was key to her victory. The 16-year-old explained she could not adapt to Liu’s change in tactics in the second game, but she tried not to stress herself out and got her head back in the game.
“When I was losing 16 - 20 in the third game, I only thought about handling each point well and told myself to enjoy the competition. This way I could calm myself down and minimise the mistakes that I would make,” the Form Five student said.
Meanwhile in boys’ singles, Jason Gunawan of Diocesan Boys’ School proved why he was the tournament favourite after claiming the championship last year. The 15-year-old outplayed La Salle College’s Hung Kuei-chun in the final in two straight games 21-12 and 21-13 to clinch gold for the second consecutive year.
The DBS player stood undefeated throughout the entire tournament. The Form Four student was pleased with his performance and said defeating players who were older than him has boosted his confidence.
Jason also mentioned he wanted to take on La Salle’s star player Ko Shing-hei, who did not take part in the singles event this year due to a scheduling conflict with his overseas competitions.
The two are teammates on the Hong Kong junior national team, but they only went head-to-head once at a previous Jing Ying Team Tournament.
“Ko Shing-hei is the strongest opponent in interschool events. I lost to him last time, and I had hoped to get my revenge in this tournament,” Jason said.
While Ko Shing-hei sat out of the singles event, the Form Six student led his school’s rookie Chu Lok-sum to win the boys’ doubles title. The La Salle duo knocked out Raimondi College’s Hugo Pong Lap-hang and Kwan Pok-hong in 21-13 and 21-19.
In girls’ doubles action, last year’s bronze medallist Yuen Lok-tsz of Heep Yunn School partnered with Ho Wan-yuet to face Suen Ching and Law Yuen-tung of Good Hope School.
The Heep Yunn pair took the first game 21-14 and carried their momentum into the second game by winning 21-17 to help their school return to the throne in girls’ doubles. The last time Heep Yunn won the girls’ doubles title was in 2017.