Dear Friends,
It was a successful trip to Campinas, Brazil. We came together as a team and won the Thomas Cup Continental Stage, which means that we are going to play the Thomas Cup final in Jakarta, Indonesia, in May!
Our week was filled with a couple of days of training and then 3 days of competition. We faced Brazil, Peru, and the USA in round robin play. We beat them 5-0, 5-0, and 4-1, respectively. This put us as the number one team going into the final, playing the number two USA. For those of you who may not know, the Thomas Cup is a men's only team event, which plays three men's singles and two men's doubles. Our singles players had a chance to shine in the final. We swept the first three singles matches and won the event! My match was the toughest of the three. I played the number one USA player, Raju Raj, and had to really fight to win in three hard sets, 21-15 in the third. Bobby Milroy played number two and Stephan Wojcikiewicz played in the number three singles spot. Both won their matches fairly easily.
Our victory was a great moment for us, as we had lost the last two Thomas Cup matches against the USA two and four years ago. This was our last chance with the current team, and what better destination for the final than Jakarta, where kids play badminton in the streets like kids play hockey in Canada! It will be one of the highlights of my badminton career, that I can promise!
We fly back to Canada today, where I'll pack for my trip to Europe for six weeks.
Best wishes to all of you!
Andrew
ANDREW ROBERT DABEKA
(c) 613.222.3302
www.AndrewDabeka.caPrevious emails:Jan 23, Jan 21, Dec 14, Nov 25, Nov 17, Nov 1, Oct 24, Oct 9, Sept 29, Sept 8, Sept 1, Aug 14, Jult 31 and July 10, 2007
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