Surprises at badminton meet

Some unusual suspects have emerged as the second night of competition of the Senior National Badminton Championships continued at the Wildey Gymnasium last night. 
In the men’s singles title chase, Bradley Pilgrim and Andrew Clarke sent the favoured Dakiel Thorpe and Kevin Wood crashing out of the tournament with 21-19, 21-17 and 22-20, 19-21, 21-16 victories, respectively. 
The diminutive Pilgrim was able to put Thorpe under pressure from early and never relinquished his grasp by using his speed to cover all areas of the court. 
Clarke also applied the early pressure by winning the first game, but dropped the second and with all to play for in the third, his shot selection and consistency were superb, allowing for Wood to become increasingly frustrated and forcing him into making unforced errors. 
Pilgrim will now have to face the defending champion Andre Padmore who defeated Julius Willoughby 21-8, 21-15 and Clarke will play Ryan Holder who narrowly escaped Dave Forde with a 16-21, 22-20, 21-17 win. 
The women’s singles title will see a rematch of the 2010 final with Sabrina Scott looking for some redemption against the defending champion Shari Watson. Scott beat  Cheriann Fanus 21-6, 21-8 and  Watson beat Mariama Eastmond 21-16, 21-19
In women’s doubles action, former national players Shakiera Waithe and Dionne Haynes also registered a surprise upset over Scott and Tamisha Williams 15-21; 21-16; 21-16. 
Having to go the full distance after dropping the first game, Waithe and Haynes finally found their stride exhibiting good court craft and movement.  
Both teams played extremely hard with neither wanting to let anything hit the ground even when the open spaces had been exposed. Although Waithe and Haynes never trailed in the second game the third saw the scores locked on numerous occasions up until the 17th point where Waithe and Haynes scored four straight points to seal the victory.
They will now face the No. 2 seeds Monyata Riviera and Mikeila Carrington in the semi-finals to hopefully book a spot to face the defending champions Watson and Eastmond.
The first round of the men’s doubles and mixed doubles did not yield any surprises as those expected to advance did so comfortably. 
Padmore and Wood will look to defend their title in the men’s doubles category while new champions will be crowned in the mixed doubles category as the 2010 champions Eastmond and Ryan Holder will not be playing in the tournament together. (PR/SAT)