Commonwealth Games champion Michelle Li led Canada to the team title in the Pan Am Badminton Championships 2014 over USA yesterday.
Brazil won the playoff for third place beating Peru 3-0.
Canada (below) scrambled back from a 0-2 deficit after USA pocketed the first two matches. Phillip Chew/Eva Lee gave USA the lead winning the Mixed Doubles over Toby Ng/Alex Bruce 21-16 20-22 21-17. Sattawat Pongnairat made it 2-0 winning his Men’s Singles encounter over Andrew D’Souza 21-12 21-16.
Michelle Li then turned the tide in Canada’s favour. She outplayed Jamie Subandhi 21-17 21-15 to make it 1-2. Men’s Doubles duo Adrian Liu/Derrick Ng survived a tense duel against Phillip Chew/Sattawat Pongnairat 21-10 20-22 21-17. Michelle Li then returned for Women’s Doubles, partnering Rachel Honderich. The Canadians overcame a first game loss to prevail over Eva Lee/Paula Lynn Obanana 21-18 8-21 21-11 and ensure that the title stayed with Canada for the 9th straight time. Canada have now won the Pan American team event 11 times out of 13 since the team championships began in 1991 at Kingston, Jamaica. USA (below) finished runners-up for the fourth straight time.
Brazil wrapped up third place with a comfortable result over Peru. Alex Tjong/Lohaynny Vicente needed over an hour to seal their Mixed Doubles opener against Mario Cuba/Katherine Winder (19-21 21-18 21-14).
However, the next two matches went Brazil’s way quickly. Daniel Paiola wrapped up his Men’s Singles match over Andres Corpancho 21-11 21-14 in just 25 minutes before Fabiana Silva gave Brazil third place with a 21-11 21-19 result over Daniela Macias in Women’s Singles.
Guatemala won fifth place beating Mexico 3-2, while Dominican Republic finished seventh after a 3-0 whitewash of Argentina.
The eight participating teams were earlier divided into two groups. USA topped Group A over Peru, Mexico and Dominican Republic, while Canada topped Group B over Brazil, Guatemala and Argentina.
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