Sabeel Foster was crowned the new junior king of badminton when the curtain came down on the Dacosta Mannings National Junior Championships at the Barbados Community College on Saturday.
In an epic battle in the Under-19 boys’ singles title match, Foster defeated D’Andre Thorpe 21-15, 18-21, 21-18.
Foster started aggressively and jumped out to an 11-6 lead at the first interval. He executed many deceptive drop shots to extend his lead by seven points (19-12). Thorpe fought back, scoring four straight, but it was too little, too late to prevent Foster taking early honours.
Foster changed tactics in the second game and started to lift the shuttle, allowing Thorpe to smash the bird and pull within two at the interval (11-9).
With the momentum and crowd in his favour, Thorpe levelled the score at 12 and then scored six unanswered points to extend the lead to 17-12.
Foster pulled within two points before Thorpe played a spectacular drop shot, leaving Foster on the floor, to win the second game.
In the final game, Foster once again held the advantage, only to allow Thorpe to utilize his full reach to smash the bird and pull within one point (19-18).
Foster managed to stop the bleeding and on gaining his first match point, made it count.
Foster’s celebration did not stop there as he later teamed with Cory Fanus to defeat Thorpe and Derion Hurley in the Under-19 doubles match, 21-16, 14-21, 21-14.
Under-17 singles champion Shae Martin secured three titles. He defeated Jehu Gaskin 21-12, 21-13 in the Under-15 singles final, and paired with Gaskin to beat Gavin Robinson and Kennie King 21-9, 21-6 in the doubles division.
In the mixed doubles, he and Amanda Haywood, who won three titles herself, defeated the duos of Jaleel Arthur/Onika Moe and Joseph Tseu/Gabrielle Croney, 21-4, 21-9 and 21-3, 21-4 respectively.
In the Under-11 division, Keenan Scantlebury defeated his brother Dominick 21-10, 21-19. The siblings joined forces in the doubles and emerged champions after a hard-fought (19-21, 21-13, 21-12) victory over Harrison Griffith and Aiden Woodvine. (PR)
