Don Henley Averia (centre) won gold in the Victor Junior International Championship 2015 held in Edegem, Belgium.
By Sports Reporter/Doha
Don Henley Averia of Qatar Badminton Academy won gold in the Victor Jr. International Championship 2015 held in Edegem, Belgium, earlier this month.
Playing in the Under-13 Boys Singles Category, representing USA in a knock-out format, 12-year-old Don bested players from Germany, England, France, Scotland, Denmark and Finland.
In the hotly contested semip-final against top seed Mahendra Suvartana from Denmark, Averia took the first set 21-16 with a tactical combination of drop shots, high clears, and smashes, pounding Suvartana to the corners, forcing errors to the net. In the second set, Suvartana with killer smashes and tricky backhand drops took early lead, but Averia remained calm and patient, working at every point to win the set at 21-14.
In the final, Averia overpowered Joakim Oldorff from Sweden 21-15, 21-11 to win gold. Later, he paired up with Matti Likka Bahro of Germany, to clinch the Under 13 Boys Doubles Gold beating Kenneth Cheung and Callum Smith of Scotland.
Averia acknowledged QBA coaches for his gold-winning effort. “We train three days a week, doing a lot of strength training and building stamina, varied drills for every possible game situation, he said.
Averia has won several tournaments in Qatar and GCC countries and was the winner of BWF’s XXI Pan-American Junior Badminton Championships held in Canada a couple of years ago. He is preparing for the International Jr Badminton Championship to be held at Glasgow, Scotland, in May 2015.
Don has been training at the Qatar Badminton Academy since he was 5 years old under former Kerala (India) state player and GCC badminton champion Arun Vijayakumar, and Sports Authority of India-accredited coach Khallol Roy.
“Despite limited days of practice, Don has made us proud by winning gold in the tournament. He is a talented and very dedicated boy,” the coaches said.
Qatar Badminton Academy has been training the kids 2008 onwards at the Qatar Badminton Club courts and children of the academy have won several tournaments in Qatar under different categories of the junior events.
