By Amber Jin

The annual Luwan badminton competition was held on March 8th 2017. Before the event, students excitedly wrote their names on the sign-up sheet posted on the wall.

The gym was divided into three sections. I had the honor to witness some professional level games. During the game between Jerry Xiao and John, Jerry Xiao was able to use his racket so fluently that he didn’t miss a single birdie. John tried with all of his effort, but unfortunately he lost the game. He said, “I think I lost mainly because of my action. I only focused on my hand action instead of my feet. I tried to reach the birdie by hand, but I didn’t really move my feet much so I couldn’t keep pace with it.”

Another exciting game happened between Steven Wu and Steven Qiu. Qiu was leading in the first half of the game, but he somehow he started to lose in the second half. I asked Qiu why he lost and he told me that he didn’t have perfect control of his racket and was also a little bit tired.

The were also games between girls. The atmosphere wasn’t as intense as during the boys games, but the girls enjoyed their game all the same. For example, the game between Krystal and Elin didn’t seem like a competition. It actually looked pretty relaxing. I interviewed one of the girl players – Jessica. She said “there are fewer girls attending the badminton competition this year. I didn’t even have anybody sign up to play me in the first round. According to what I saw, not a lot of people really understand what badminton is. They don’t know about the rules at all.”

The winners of the badminton competition were Price and Jessica, from the green and yellow team respectively. Apart from that, some of the students also watched a wonderful game between Mr. Milne and George. George swung his racket with high proficiency, winning a few points in a row, and eventually winning the war.

Anyways, the badminton competition was held successfully and the winning team got points for their home team members. Students felt the competitive feeling between each other and also learned some special rules and skills for their next upcoming events. Sound like a happy ending to me!