McGill wins gold and silver at Quebec badminton championships

(PHOTO OF ANNIE LAFOREST (left) AND ANNA DURRANT BY ANDREW DOBROWOLSKYJ)

MONTREAL - The McGill tandem of Annie Laforest of Laval, Que., and Anna Durrant of Kelowna, B.C., combined to win gold at the Quebec university badminton championships over the weekend. It marked the first provincial gold for any McGill women since Chloe Lennox accomplished the feat in 2006.

On the men's side, McGill's Henry Pan, an 18-year-old science freshman from Saskatoon, was seeded fifth heading into the weekend but came away with an unexpected bronze-medal finish in men's singles.

Laforest, a second-year medical student, and Durrant, a psychology senior, won all four of their matches to earn the doubles title. After receving a first-round bye, they swept their opponents from the Universite de Montreal, winning 21-10 and 21-14. The dynamic duo then swept Sherbrooke 21-18, 21-17 in the quarterfinal and rallied to defeat another squad from U de M 10-21, 21-13 and 21-6 in a semifinal.

In the finals, McGill stunned the Montreal Carabins top-seeded pairing of Karine Deragon-Jean and Caroline Vézina. After dropping the opening set 8-21, the McGill pair rallied to win the next two games 21-17 and 21-18.

In men's singles, Pan won his first three matches, defeating Laval's Mathieu Savard (21-8, 21-19) and Sakimony Sith of ETS (21-18, 21-16), then pulled off a stunning 21-12, 22-20 upset over top-seeded Philippe Charron from the Montreal Carabins in the quarterfinals.

Pad's win streak ran out in the semifinals, however, where he suffered a 2-1 loss in a hotly-contested match with Laval's third-seeded Audric Hartmann-Karsenti, who won by set scores of 21-18, 18-21 and 21-17.

SOURCE:

Earl Zukerman

Communications Officer

McGill Athletics & Recreation

514-398-7012