Team Canada competes at the 2019 Parapan Am Games!

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Team Canada competes at the 2019 Parapan Am Games!

Team Canada competes as badminton makes its debut at the 2019 Parapan Am Games in Lima, Peru!

LIMA, Peru – Team Canada is in Lima, Peru this week for the 2019 Parapan Am Games where badminton is making its debut! Our athletes are competing to be the best in the Pan Am region, and earn points towards qualification to the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics next summer!

 

Former para-tennis player, Yuka Chokyu of Vancouver isn’t through making a racquet in Canadian Para sport however now it’s in the sport of badminton. She opened the Parapan American Games women’s singles wheelchair tournament with an easy 21-4, 21-11 win over Souza of Brazil.

 

‘’I never played against her in singles,’’ said Chokyu. ‘’I knew she could hit well and she has a good backhand lift so I was kind of avoiding that. I served well especially in the first game.’’

 

The Japanese-born Chokyu competed at three Paralympic Games and the Toronto 2015 Parapan Ams in wheelchair tennis and is now making her mark in badminton. Last year at the Pan Am Championships, also in Lima, she won the silver in singles, gold in women’s doubles with a Peruvian partner and bronze in mixed doubles with Bernard Lapointe.

 

At the world championships last week in Berne, Switzerland, Chokyu reached the round of 16 in singles.

 

For her part, Olivia Meier of Winnipeg posted two wins. In singles, she defeated Laura Lanes of Cuba 21-6, 21-12 then combined forces with Pascal Lapointe of Montreal in mixed doubles to defeat a Peruvian pair 21-15, 21-7. With those victories, the Canadians are in a strong position to advance to the semifinals.

 

Olivia also won both her matches with Patrice Lapointe in standing mixed doubles while in women’s singles she earned a win and a loss.

 

‘’I was expecting it to be fairly close in our second match.’’ said Lapointe about the pairs second victory. ‘’We won the first set more easy than I expected so I figured the second set it would be tougher so we had to bear down and pulled it through in the end.”

 

Meier felt the effects of the day.

 

‘’I’m pretty tired right now,’’ she said. ‘’A lot of recovering and eating through the day, making sure I had break between each game. It was a rough schedule especially this afternoon.’’

 

Both the women’s singles and mixed doubles are straight round robin tournaments.

 

Meanwhile William Roussy of Maria, Que., in men’s standing SL3 singles, Yuka Chokyu of Vancouver in women’s wheelchair, Bernard Lapointe of Moncton and Richard Peter of Duncan, B.C., in men’s wheelchair doubles and Wyatt Lightfoot of Assiniboia, Sask., in men’s short stature singles all have a stranglehold for a semifinal berth with wins today.

 

‘’It wasn’t my best game but it wasn’t my worst either,’’ said Lightfoot. ‘’I can certainly play better and I’m here with the objective to win the gold medal. This is really exciting for us to be at the Games.’’

 

LOUIS DAIGNAULT
Senior Coordinator, Communications
Coordonnateur senior, communications
Canadian Paralympic Committee | Comité paralympique canadien

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