5th Annual Primary School Badminton Tournament 2021 Held at the TSA Friday 12th November
The day had finally come, where our coaches had been in different schools, delivering Shuttle Time classes in preparation for this day.
The tournament started in the morning with the arrival of different schools followed by a welcoming speech, and then proceeded with our first matches. The matches were played in a round robin format, followed by Play-offs, Semi Finals, and then Finals with 41 rounds in total. What an action packed day it was.
There was a minor issue that had emerged from this years Semi Finals. One Year 6 Boys group who lost during the play-offs, and was mistakenly been added to the Semi Finals. However, when the issue emerged the team had manage to address and correct this issue which lead to an additional Semi Finals and a rematch Final and an even more cheerful and exciting atmosphere.
It was good to see our kids and parents soaking up the excitement and having fun. One excited grandma had been at the tournament to watch her grandson play, this is what she had to say.
“I came to watch my grandson play for Te Uki Ou at Badminton. They won their group (happy grandma right there).. Hats off to all of you that persevered with elevating Badminton to what it is today.. well done, well organized despite the little final hiccup.. Keep it up, & pass my congrats to the commitee when you get the chance…” said excited grandma
In spite of COVID impacting our economy, the association was able to onboard our awesome sponsors Bank of the Cook Islands and Federal Pacific Insurance, to provide healthy snack packs to our schools and volunteers, and also onboard Vodafone to provide prizes for our participants and champions.
Thomas Ngauru, the President of CIBA had mentioned throughout the tournament, that CIBA was on the scout for talented individuals who would go on to represent Cook Islands at the next AIMS Games in New Zealand for 2022.
“Despite the cancellation of last years and this years AIMS Games due to COVID. We will carry on as planned, to take a team to AIMS Games unless otherwise stated” said Thomas
Thank you to Badminton World Federation (BWF), Badminton Oceania (BOC) our Primary Schools Apii Nikao, Apii Avarua, Apii Arorangi, Apii St Joseph, Apii Takitumu, Apii Te Uki Ou, Apii Akatemia, Apii Papaaroa, our sponsors Bank of the Cook Islands, Vodafone and Federal Pacific Insurance, and our volunteers, for coming on board and believing in our initiatives and values as we make badminton accessible to the Cook Islands
Congratulations goes out to all our winners in your respective age groups and to Apii Nikao for taking out the Overall Championship 2yrs in a row. Fact, Second School to do this, lets see if we can be the first to make it a three-peat
Badminton Cook Islands 