St. Vincent's High and Technical School, Asansol hosted Br. J.G. Packenham Memorial Under-19 Badminton Tournament with 5 Christian Brother Schools participating in the tournament from all over India. The U-19 Columban Badminton Team played their first match on 13th July against Goethals Memorial School, Kurseong. The Columban team won with Madan and Ishan winning the first two singles matches in 2 straight sets and the doubles team consisting Dhiraj and Pratham who lost to the doubles team of Goethals and thus the game went to the reverse singles where the 2nd singles player of Columbas i.e. Ishan played against the 1st player of Goethals and subsequently Ishan won the game in two straight sets, taking the Columban Badminton team to their first victory.
The Second Match was played against St. Vincent's, Asansol, the host team, the same day after 3 hours of our first match. Madan played the first singles but lost to their player though he won a set but the opponent won the other 2 sets. Ishan played the 2nd singles and won in 2 straight sets. The doubles team lost to their team taking the game to reverse singles with Ishan playing the first player of Vincent's and winning in 2 straight sets. Madan played the 2nd reverse singles due to his loss in his first singles though he won his reverse singles in straight 2 sets.
The Columban team played their 3rd match against St. Patrick's, Asansol, the same day in the evening. Madan played the first singles against the player ranked 2 in Bengal (of St. Patrick's) and lost to him though he won a set but lost the other 2. Ishan played the 2nd singles and won in straight sets. The doubles team, this time replacing Dhiraj with Ibrahim Sam lost to the opponent team taking the game in reverse singles. Ishan played the reverse against the Bengal rank 2. He lost his first set to him but came back with his strong side and defeated him in the following 2 sets and winning the match. Madan then played the 2nd reverse singles due to his loss in the 1st match. Madan lost to the opponent in the reverse and this lead to the first loss of the Columban team. The next day, keeping the loss in their previous match in mind, came up with a destructive game for the team of St. Edmund's, Shillong. Our team won the game in 3 straight matches with Madan and Ishan winning their singles and our doubles team winning their game.
With all these wins, the U-19 St. Columba's Badminton went to the finals.
SCS played the finals against St. Vincent's, Asansol. Madan played the first singles and lost the match while winning a set but losing the other two. Ishan then took over the 2nd singles and defeated the opponent in 2 straight sets. The doubles team then played but lost though they gave a spectacular performance. The reverse singles then took place between Ishan and the 2nd singles player of Vincent's. Ishan lost the first set to him but gave an exceptional performance in the other 2 sets and won them easily. Now the whole result depended on the match of Madan with the 2nd player of Vincent's with the team scores of 2-2. Madan, who displayed an astonishing performance under pressure, unfortunately lost to the opponent. St. Vincent's emerged as the winners of the tournament after the jaw-dropping match against St. Columba's. Though Columba's lost, we won many hearts out there. The Columban Badminton team were the runner's up of the tournament with Ishan Kohli from being declared as the Best Player of the Tournament due to his undefeated performance during the tournament.
It was one of the best experience for each and every player who went and gave their best.
