10th Grand Prix of Oullins Badminton Tournament

 

So it was tournament weekend and this time the tournament was to be held at a town called Oullins on the South West of Lyon. Learning from my US experience, I chose not to take part in all 3 events, just doubles and mixed doubles. Spread your line too thin and your defence gets broken because it becomes weak;) The tournaments in France are slightly more complex than that in Singapore in a sense that as a player, you need to be registered with the French Badminton Association and have a license to play in these tournaments just like how James bond has a licence to kill, just that he doesn't show it. After obtaining one of these licenses, you will be grouped into different levels, because the French encourages competition at all levels, which in a sense is good because it motivates people to improve and compete. 

So, this is Jana Buhl, I think I introduced her earlier in a rollerblading story earlier on. We parterned for mixed doubles in the 'A' category, which is 1 level below the elite 50 category, where the top 50 players in France competes. We eventually emerged champions of the tournament and I would say she has been one hell of a partner. A fellow leftie, which somehow makes the dynamics of the game more interesting and perhaps more complex, we sometimes have problems with each other because its kinda rare for both of us to partner a fellow leftie. Nevertheless, its an honour to play with her because she just plays kick ass mixed doubles and communication in english just makes our partnership better everytime we play(Thank god I don't have to sort things out on the court in french or german) although my lack of ability in mixed doubles sometimes disappoint. Nevertheless, learning alot of technique for mixed doubles from her :) For the next tournament in Montpellier, we will be attemping to play in the elite category, for the experience and to see how we can fair against the best in France ;)

And here, we have Benoit Azzopard. 22 years of age and was top 5 in France 2 years ago. Stopped playing in the French National team because of his pursuit in academics in the area of Kinesiology. According to Mehdi, the guy with the big eyes in the next photo, Benoit is still around the top 20 in doubles in France currently. Hence, we basically steamrolled through all the way to the title in the A category tournament. We would also hope to play in the elite category albeit not in Montpellier but somewhere else perhaps end of June, when Benoit finishes his studies and has time to play. Playing with him is also an honour because he is so fast he basically runs rings around me that in relative terms, make me look static at times. And luckily for me, my parents are coming this weekend so I can leave that huge cup with them to bring back.

And here, we have people from the badminton club of Villeurbanne, the club that I play and enjoy my badminton in France. And again from the US experience, I am happy that I managed to find a club through Lilas's help, a family friend at the beginning of my exchange here so that I will not have regrets and lose touch with badminton. I always believe that sports is not solely an activity to develop the competitive spirit, but to develop relationships, relationships that make us more comfortable in the social context, and quicken our process of integrating into local culture. For it is an activity that is continuous and everlasting, an activity that one would not need to worry about the inertia or the tiredness, because the activity has an innate ability to draw people together, and that's wherein lies the beauty of such an activity called sports ;)

Its always so easy to have the desire to win when there is something you are winning for ;)