Written by: Amanda Goh Edited by: Choa Zhao Xiang and Leung Lok Heng Photos by: EusoffWorks
Before we learn more about our amazing badminton captains, Elis (who is undefeated at IHG), and Eik Chieh (who fights hard to get out of bed for his team), let us first learn a little more about the sport!
According to Google, Badminton is a game with rackets where a shuttlecock is hit back and forth across a net. However after talking to some of the players, here are a few details about the sport that will help you understand the game better! In IHG, one round consists of 3 singles matches and 2 doubles matches (5 in total), alternating between singles and doubles, and the hall that wins 3 matches or more out of the 5 takes the victory for that round. For players to win a match, they first have to get to 21 points to win the set, and each match is played to the best of 3 sets.
Let us kick off our introduction to the captains with some basic facts about two of them! Elis has been playing badminton for 10 years while Eik Chieh has been at it for 6 years. It was obvious that both of them could not remember a time when Badminton was not part of their lives because they took a solid minute to count how many years of experience they had!
Not only are Elis and Eik Chieh talented and experienced, they are both held in high regard by their team; with team members describing Elis as “caring for every single member of the team”, and Eik Chieh as “driven and hardworking”.
The girls team had nothing but praise for Elis, many noting that she will constantly ask for feedback on her training methods, and gives all her team members advice and attention. One of them had this to say: “Elis genuinely wants every one of her team members to improve. Wah frik I love Elis she’s damn cool!” Elis proved this statement to be true when she revealed to me that one of her goals for IHG was to try her best to let all the team members get a chance to play during IHG, despite knowing the complications and risks that might come with that decision. Elis always puts the needs of her team before herself- she is even willing to sit out some matches to ensure that all 3 IVP players get to show off their skills on court. Even though she is one of the best badminton players in the world, Elis remains humble. When asked about her undefeated streak at IHG she just looked away and said “no lah no lah hahahaa”.
Not to be outshone, Eik Chieh also values improvement and hard work, telling me : ”At the end of the day, you don’t remember if you win the gold or not, but you will remember the progress you made.”, a quote that he also repeats to his team. Eik Chieh’s determination can be seen from how he set 10 alarms for our 9am interview- “I swear I tried damn hard to wake up”, and even though he failed to wake up, his resilience shone through when he eventually did make it for our 12:30am interview despite getting a little bit lost! His grit and determination shines through during trainings, and his team members note that while Eik Chieh is tough on them, he does it for the sake of his team, and constantly pushes them to the best of their abilities.
While Elis is “pretty confident” that the girls team will get into the finals, Eik Chieh feels that this year, the guys team are the “underdogs” (Sources from TH also agree with both statements). Even though both captains feel differently about their odds, they can both agree that they are very proud of their team, and they would like their team members to know that they see all the effort that they put in during training. A notable example would be Thuya, who just picked up badminton and was made to do an intensive hour long drill during training (“I f-ed up hahaha” says Eik Chieh). When asked if he needed a break, Thuya just replied “its okay i just need to get used to the fatigue”. So upz meh?!
With Elis and Eik Chieh leading such a solid team, a gold for IHG seems highly likely despite the (T)oug(H) competition! Of course, the team still needs good welfare which their TMs provide (shoutout to Chris for treating Elis to bubble tea and to Christianne who apparently has “grand plans” for the team), as well as strong support so do go down to support this stacked team during IHG!!!
Comentarios