RSK ‘Winter Cup’ reaches 3rd week; holds 1st kids tourney – Vijayan, Nuansamlee lead Higher bracket qualifiers 

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KUWAIT CITY, Nov 28: Tournament 15 “Winter Cup” of RSK Badminton at Kazma Sports Club in Adailiya reaches its last week of eliminations – its 3rd week – and the so-called “twilight zone” as qualifiers advance to the final rounds, while the not-so-lucky non-qualifiers drop out of the tournament. Supported by SportsDirect in Kuwait, morning tourney participants flocked the wooden courts earlier than the 8:00 a.m. game time for a warm-up to prepare for their matches, as each one aims to clinch a slot and qualify for next week’s rounds.

In the Team Event Category, the Team Badminators live-up to their name as they dominated the tally board and leads the pack to the next rounds, while Team Cebu Ninja failed to show their ninja moves and dropped out of the race, falling 1 win behind Team Vinod. In Level C, out of 18 pairs, only 12 pairs were lucky enough to qualify for next week, led by Rene Manalang and Anne Reyes. Level D category on the other hand, with 2 brackets, shows Aida Alfarisy and Fia Dao dominating the tally board in the Lower bracket, while Mohan Vijayan and Piyanut Nuansamlee lead Higher bracket qualifiers.

At mid-day, RSK Officials headed by the club President Ricardo Delos Santos did the RSK break-time sign as they linedup at center court and walked around the hall to invite all members to join for a momentary group video and photo shoot. At 1:00 pm, parents as well as kids unleashed their excitement for the muchawaited 1st Kids Tournament, a first-of-its kind in Kuwait for children 5 to 11 years of age. RSK Kids Club is a brainchild of RSK Chairperson Felix Besanez and spearheaded by Kids Club Director & RSK SVP Garry Calub. Twelve kids qualified for the initial tourney and after a briefing with the parents and participants, kids paired to play doubles games in a round robin format.

Parents were asked to guide and coach their kids this time, and explain to them the value of accepting the results of their games, especially on the event of losing. As the games started, the expected disarray among kids took place but to the glee and laughter of the spectators. Parents on the side appeared more hyper and nervous than their kids, as they jump and clap on each hit of the shuttlecock and each score made by their kids. After the totally fun and exciting games, the following kids made it to list of the winners in the 1st RSK Kids Tournament.

Going back to the main tournament, in the afternoon games, it was a tit-for-tat in in almost all categories with close gaps in rankings and scores. In the hard-smashing, no-mercy Level Aplayers, hubby and wife tandem of Essam and Cheryl Meslmani leads the pack of qualifiers despite of a defaulted game early on. In the Level B, Jeffen Iqbal and Randycho Ramos dominates the board, while Level C category shows Michael Valencia and Florievee Satorre comfortably leads everyone for next week’s rounds.

Budding Level D smashers on the other hand, is again headed by morning leader Piyanut Nuansamlee but with partner Maricel Baldago-Dican. Other than the scheduled finals matches next week which promises to be another fun and exciting Friday, RSK invites all badminton aficionados to witness another one-day tournament happening on Dec 11 but this time is intended to be for-a-cause and is dubbed as “Palo Mo, Bangka Ko – Vista Land Cup”, sponsored by Vista Land International. RSK holds badminton every Friday at Kazma Sports Club in Adailiya, and anyone interested may visit or call 5032-8862 for inquiries.

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