Weekend Wrap-up

It was quite an eventful weekend at the Peru International Challenge, but the reason I wanted to make a quick post was because in the men's singles semi final between Guatemala's Kevin Cordon and Cuba's Osleni Guerrero. The match was shaking up to be a battle of the two singles giants in the Pan Am Region until Kevin jumped to his forehand for a routine smash, but when he landed, his knee wobbled awkwardly and gave out. He crumpled to the ground and the stadium fell to silence as Guatemala's superstar was down for the count. In my opinion: it looked bad. Really bad. He was slapping the ground in pain and didn't want to bend his leg at all. After about 15 minutes he was lifted, with the help of his opponent, onto a stretcher, and carried to an ambulance outside. I'm not sure what happened after that, but hopefully it's nothing career-ending. He's a great ambassador to the sport, especially in South and Central America, and I hope he recovers quickly.

UPDATE: Looks like he tore his ACL, so he might be done. sad faces abound :(

Hola

Hola Badminton Square! I am currently in Miraflores, Peru for the Peru International Tournament, and also currently not your regular post-er, Natalie. My name is Curtis, and you could say I'm a bit of a badminton enthusiast as well. I've known the sport ever since I was little, and recently moved down to SoCal to train at OCBC for a year to see what becomes of it. I'm about half way through my year, and this was my first trip outside North America for a tournament.

From what I've gathered from having watched, and now played in, a few international tournaments, it's as much about how well you can adjust to the conditions as it is about your skills as a player. Entering the gym, there are gaps in the roof of the super high ceiling, allowing for an inconsistent draft to occur, as well as for pigeons to fly in and land on the court (happened during a teammate's match). There are a lot of things you have to adjust to, which is part of what "experience" means. An experienced player can learn how to play in a new gym as well as learn how to play their opponent.

Anyways, I got knocked out of the tournament in a close first round singles game, and later lost in the doubles quarter finals to a team from Holland. What I am excited for now is watching the semi final matches tomorrow and learning more about the game, as well as possibly getting out to enjoy the oceanside town of Miraflores; a suburb of Lima... that is if I survive the cab rides. Almost all the cars on the road are taxis, and almost all of them are absolutely crazy drivers. The roads are buzzing with organized chaos and the sound of horns, but somehow everyone is on the same page, and there are no accidents.

If you want to follow the rest of the tournament, which includes a handful of Olympians, you can find the draws here: http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/draws.aspx?id=E2F957A3-E155-4EFD-A6A1-10C1F19D97DA

If you have any badminton-related questions about anything, feel free to leave a comment. I'm sort of stretching my legs out with this whole blog thing and would love to see how far we can run with it.