DONG AND CHOW SUCCESSFULLY DEFEND NATIONAL TITLE
NORTH YORK, Ont – Partners Adam Dong and Ryan Chow won the 2017 CCAA Men's Doubles National Championship Saturday evening after a hard fought straight set win over Andy Ko and Imran Wadia from NAIT (ACAC).
In round robin play, NAIT came extremely close to beating Humber, forcing extras in the first set and winning the second, before losing the third and final set.
Since Dong and Chow paired up last season, the duo had never lost a set in CCAA play, creating buzz for the highly anticipated final. In the opening set, NAIT battled Humber tough, grabbing a lead at the break. Dong and Chow missed multiple chances and were trailing late, 16-20. Surrounded by shouts of encouragement from teammates and coaches, the Hawks rallied back to win in incredible fashion, 24-22.
Despite the change of momentum, NAIT opened the second set on a 4-0 run, as the Hawks continued to miss scoring opportunities. At that point, Humber seemed to regain its dominant form, rallying from behind and cruising to an easy 21-12 second set victory to successfully defend its title.
Including a 2015 mixed doubles national championship, Adam Dong has now won three titles in three years for Humber. As for Ryan Chow, he concludes his post-secondary badminton career with five CCAA medals in three disciplines, including: 2013 mixed doubles bronze, 2014 men's singles bronze and 2015 men's doubles bronze.
Humber CCAA Men's Doubles Medals (4)
2009 – Charlie Lay/Alang Luangrath | Bronze
2015 – Ryan Chow/Darcy Schmidt | Bronze
2016 – Ryan Chow/Adam Dong | Gold
2017 – Ryan Chow/Adam Dong | Gold
Dong/Chow's Road to the Title
Round 1 – Munwar/Shewan (ACAA), 21-9 21-12
Round 2 – Kumar/Mohammed (OCAA Host), 21-8 21-7
Round 3 – Ko/Wadia (ACAC), 23-21 12-21 21-12
Round 4 – Nguyen/Wong (ACAC WC), 21-8 21-13
Round 5 – Foster/Qiu (PACWEST), 21-11 21-11
Semi-final – Foster/Qiu, 21-11 21-15
Finals – Ko/Wadia, 24-22 21-12
