The Technological University of Dublin City Campus were recently crowned the Student Sport Ireland / Badminton Ireland league champions after a powerful display all day saw them take glory in Baldoyle Badminton Centre.
In a change to the final’s day format from previous years six teams took part in the cup finals on the day with the teams being split into two groups of three teams and they played off in a round robin style event.
Group A was made up of TU Dublin City Campus, TU Dublin Tallaght Campus and Dundalk IT. A superb first round game saw TU Dublin City Campus claim bragging rights over the TU Dublin Tallaght side on a 4-1 score line over the five matches of Men’s and Women’s Singles, Men’s and Women’s Doubles and Women’s Doubles. TU Dublin City Campus secured their spot in the final as they defeated Dundalk IT on a similar 4-1 score as the team made up of Ray Ma, Ellie Power, Rachael Darragh, David Barton, Oisin Dwyer, Laura Kinnerk and Mark Gannon finished top of group A. TU Dublin Tallaght finished in second with a 3-2 win over Dundalk IT, a result which saw TU Dublin Tallaght qualify for the 3rd-4th place play off and saw Dundalk it qualify for the 5th-6th place play off.
Group B had a starting list of Dublin City University, IT Carlow and Cork IT. It was to be the side from the rebel county that would qualify for the final as Cork IT defeated both DCU and IT Carlow 3-2. The Cork IT team included Andrew Dunlea, Aisling McAllister, James Lester, Claire Cahill and Cathal O’Donoghue. DCU finished second in the group and made it into the 3rd-4th place play off while IT Carlow moved to the 5th- 6th place play off.
Final – TU Dublin City Campus put in a dominant display in the cup final as they defeat Cork IT on a 3-0 score line. Ray Ma was a 22-20, 16-21, 21-17 winner over Andrew Dunlea in the Men’s Singles.
The Women’s Singles saw Rachael Darragh defeat Aisling McAllister 21-7, 21-6, and the result was put to rest in the Mixed Doubles game as Laura Kinnerk and Mark Gannon powered to a 21-14, 21-11 win over Cathal O’Donoghue and Claire Cahill.
3rd-4th Place Play Off – TU Dublin Tallaght were the winners of the 3rd-4th place match over DCU as Paddy Martin was a 21-5, 21-12 winner over Melvin Cotoner in the Men’s Singles, Kate Frost blitzed Aine Madden 21-5, 21-4, while Jack Lawlor and Meloise Therrat were 21-15, 21-19 winners over Melvin Cotoner and Sebastian Delgado to seal a 3-0 win for TU Dublin Tallaght.
5th- 6th Play Off – Dundalk IT were 4-0 winners over IT Carlow in the 5th-6th place play off in the men’s singles Terence Ka defeated Gregory Chin 21-2, 21-11, Emma Thon defeated Ciara Worrell 21-8, 21-7 in the women’s singles. Terence Ka and Ben Tina were victorious in the men’s doubles defeated Gregory Chin and Nihal Shariff 21-18, 21-18. Emma Thon and Sikw Wri wrapped up a 4-0 victory with a 21-11, 21-14 win over Nihal Sahrriff and Marine Frebault.
Letterkenny IT were winners of the Tier 2 competition which effectively saw them finish 7th over all as they defeated IT Tralee in the final 3-2.
