The Victorian Smashers have claimed the championship spot at the 2016 Li-Ning Ede Clendinnen Team events. Over the last few days, teams from states and territories around the country came together to compete for bragging rights as the top state team in the Open level, right here in Victoria at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre (MSAC). Our elite BAV players, Matthew Chau, Ashwant Gobinathan, Louisa Ma and Joy Lai were selected to play for our state’s competitive team, the Victorian Smashers.

Led by team captain Ashwant, the Victorian Smashers defeated teams from New South Wales and Tasmania, to finish at the top of their group in the initial round robin stage. Next they faced off the team from Queensland in the groups crossover, which they comfortably won with a score of 11-2.

Today showcased the best states in Australia on the elite level of badminton, with the Victorian Smashers meeting the team from South Australia in the finals today. Louisa and Ashwant both had tough losses in their Singles events with both matches lasting 3 sets over 50 minutes. But Joy, backing up her winning title at the 2016 Li-Ning Australian National Championships, reignited the team’s spirit with a dominating Singles won in straight sets in 16 minutes.

Joy also played the first-ranking Women’s Doubles with Gronya Somerville, where Joy was able to support Gronya in backing her win in the Women’s Doubles event at the National Championships as well.

Louisa played the second-ranking Women’s Doubles for the Victorian Smashers with teammate Anne-Louise Slee, but were unable to steal the win from the 2012 London Olympian, Leanne Choo, who partnered South Australian teammate, Lee-Yen Khoo.

Matthew paired up with his championship partner Sawan Serasinghe, to win their Men’s Doubles game, as well as semi-finalist partner, Gronya to win the first-ranking Mixed Doubles match-up.

At the end of the battle, the Victorian Smashers came out victorious, with a winning score of 8-5 in matches, 18-11 in games, and 555-473 in aces, in the finals against South Australia.

Congratulations to the teams for competing so honourably for their states and a round of applause to the team managers, officials, volunteers and Badminton Victoria and Badminton Australia for hosting the successful event.

See the full results here http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/matches.aspx?id=2594F6F9-64CB-468A-ACE6-EDA845DFDDE1&d=20160303

For more about our players at BAV, check out our player profiles here http://www.badmintonacademyofvictoria.com.au/#!players/nbkzn