Gilbert pointing at his name on the board after lifting the U-18 title.
SIBU: Unheralded Gilbert Vieery stunned top seed Henry Law Yih Ho 30-24 to take the Boys’ U-18 title in the second edition of the monthly badminton competition held at Thumb’s Up Badminton Academy last weekend.
Earlier in a semi-final, Gilbert thrashed a higher ranked player Davis Paul 30-17.
Joint-third were Davis and Wong Hoi Siek.
The four losing quarter-finalists were Wong Shuo Hung, Andy Ngu, Bennet Ling and Nudjeehan.
Matches for the Boy’s U-15 and U-12 categories were scrapped due to lack of players.
In the first edition held on May 30, Randy Lee Chen Wan topped the Boys’ U-15 category with Jordan Lee Chen Yuan as runner-up.
The losing semi-finalists were Nudjeehan and Henry Law while the four losing quarter-finalists were Yek Teck Hong, Brendan Chieng Heng Ding, Muhaimin Mohd Razak and Brevan Ling Jing Yuan.
The top eight players who accumulated the most points from their respective categories will qualify for the grand final on Dec 26.
A maximum 32 players are accepted in each category and the competition is played on a 30-point single knock-out basis.
To qualify for the grand final, a player must take part in the monthly competition at least four times from May to Nov.
The champion gets 16 points, runner-up (12), losing semi-finalists (8), losing quarter-finalists (4), second round qualifiers (2) and first round entries (1).
The monthly championships, organised by Thumb’s Up Badminton Academy, is aimed at popularising the sport.
There are three singles categories for both boys and girls – U-12, U-15 and U-18 – open to players in the central region, including Sarikei, Meradong, Selangau, Durin, Kapit.
The closing date for registration is the 25th day of each month and the entry fee is RM10 per person.