STIGA QUEBEC CIRCUIT EVENTJANUARY
26-27, 2007-LAVAL, QUEBEC
Team Manitoba
recently went to Montreal for the fourth stiga circuit as a tune up for
the Canada Winter Games. The team consisted of Terry Zhang, Fred Eng,
William Liu, Lucy Liu, Allaria Odorico, Xichi Yang and myself, Mitchell
Billinkoff. The first day was the singles events that were based on
rating. Allaria and Xichi both had a good day beating some higher rated
players. Lucy had a tough time on the first day losing most of her
matches. William played very well on the first day winning one of his
events picking up a lot of crucial rating points. I had an up and down
day beating some higher players in the morning but losing to some lower
players in the afternoon. Fred was ranked number one overall in his
event but suffered a narrow loss to the second seed in knockout
elimination. Fred defaulted his afternoon matches after suffering a
shoulder injury while playing. Terry played well on the first day and
eventually lost to Stephanie Yuen in the semi-finals of the 2100-2700
event. The second day
was team event for all of us. Teams were placed in divisions based on
their rating. Allaria and Xichi played well together and came 6th
in their division. Lucy teamed up with a girl from Quebec. Lucy started
playing really well the second day and beat the former team Manitoba
player Mariana. I teamed up with William and our ratings put us in the
“f” division. We played well beating most of the teams 5-0 or 4-1
and ultimately took the gold medal beating two players from Quebec. Fred
and Terry were placed in the “B” division. Terry had become very
sick and was not acting like himself. Terry’s illness and Fred’s
sore shoulder caused them to default most of their matches. Other than our
flight being cancelled on Sunday and having to stay an extra day in
Montreal unexpectedly, this was a good tournament and a lot of
experience was gained. Now the team will head out to Whitehorse, Yukon
for the Canada Winter Games on March 4. Mitchell
Billinkoff Reporting
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