Herb Richard a Strong Tradition
Still Bringing Out Large Numbers After 85 Years
Winnipeg Nov 22, 2015 - Manitoba's longest running badminton tournament, the Yonex Herb Richard Manitoba Open Presented by Kings Head Pub, was host to over 100 athletes this weekend at the Winnipeg Winter Club, keeping our strong tradition of competition going for over 85 years.
If the true test of the quality of a tournament is the number of years it is supported by it's fans, then the Manitoba Open is among the elite. There isn't a badminton tournament in Manitoba that has held the same amount of prestige and longevity and this year we once again saw that players have not lost heart.
The tournament itself was named after the late Herb Richard who passed away in 1995. Herb was the badminton professional at the Wildewood Club for many years and was also a professional coach for tennis and golf in Winnipeg. His contributions who recognized today once again by none other than Archie Chawla, a similar type of community leader who was recently inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame as a builder for Badminton, Squash & Tennis. Archie, who moved to Canada in 1972 as a coach at the Wildewood Club has been coaching in Manitoba for 43 years and is currently the head badminton pro at the Winnipeg Winter Club.
Coincidentally Archie's brother, Pal Chawla, was also on hand to watch the finals today. Pal, yet to be nominated for the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame was the badminton professional at Winnipeg Winter Club for 40 years, is retired now but still contributing as a member of the organizing committee for the 2016 Canadian Badminton Championships which will be held at Winnipeg Winter Club on Feb. 3-6, 2016.
Manitoba's top players registered for the "A" event in hopes of gearing themselves up for the National Championships in February. Tragically Thien Vo who took home the triple crown championship, will not be able to participate in the National Championships because he is not a full citizen of Canada yet. It will be up to the rest of the players, including Kyle Grymonpre, Hanna Rebizant and Haley Nakonechny to fill the gaps in an attempt to bring another National Championships medal back to Manitoba.
List of Winners Here
Photos Here (To Be Updated Soon - Thank you Orlando Athayde for taking photos!!!)
All Results - Tournament Software Link
Below - All Finalists
Below - "A" Winners
