"A" Mixed Doubles Champions Jennifer Uy and Eric Go.

Filipinos in Southern California held their unique way of celebrating the nation’s 113^th year of independence by hosting a day-long badminton tournament on June 11^th at the San Gabriel Valley Badminton Club 2 in Pomona, California.

The tournament, which was organized by the Philippine Badminton Club of America (PBCA), was fittingly dubbed as “Kalayaan Cup” - kalayaan being the Filipino word for freedom or independence. The event took an even more nationalistic tone with the Honorable Mary Jo Bernardo-Aragon, Consul General of the Philippine Consulate in Los Angeles, welcoming the participants and opening the first match with the ceremonial tossing of the shuttlecock.

“The Kalayaan Cup, which has traditionally been the last project of the outgoing PBCA president in cooperation with the incoming officers, is a sort of culminating event for our club and highlights our members’ fealty to our country,” according to outgoing PBCA president Jun Bautista. “It is our last hurrah, so to speak.”

The tournament took an exciting turn when the A division players started their matches. Former US international player Eric Go, who is also a Filipino, combined with former Philippine national player Jennifer Uy in the A mixed doubles event. Although this was his first tournament after a long hiatus, Go wowed the audience, especially the Filipino crowd, as he exhibited his superb court skills, complemented by Uy, that made them win the championship.

In the A men’s doubles category, visiting Scottish player Alistair Casey (rank number 94 in the world in men’s singles) paired with former English international player Peter Smith. Casey and Smith played a close three-game match against Las Vegas’s GJ Watts and Joe Phanpuchara for the semi-finals.


Alistair Casey of Scotland and Peter Smith of UK battling their way up to the championships.

Watts-Phanpuchara took the first game at 21-14, which was, however, met with a strong reprisal from Casey-Smith by finishing off game two with Watts-Phanpuchara scoring only 8. In the end, Casey-Smith managed to keep the Vegas boys at bay by taking the semis with a margin of 4 points.

But the English-Scottish tandem were defeated in a straight win during the finals at 21-18, 21-18 by the top San Diego team of Kyle Emerick and Sarun Vivatpatanakul, who four months ago have just emerged champions in the prestigious Dave Freeman Open against one of SGVBC’s star coaches Agus Wijaya and well-known Nor-Cal player Kowi Chandra.

In the lower divisions, once again PBCA players proved their dominance by taking the champion’s title in four events and runner-up title in six events. Kiril Benliro and Lonie Galarpe were champions in the C men’s doubles, Patrick Fernandez and Jonah Perea in the D men’s doubles, Gerry Perea in the E men’s doubles, and Henry Cawili and Alexandra Go in the D mixed doubles.

236 players, more than half of which were Filipinos, participated and vied for the coveted champion’s title in various divisions: from the novice to A level. PBCA is proud to be one of few tournament organizers where low level players get the real chance of competing in a big tournament.