Ramsubhag heads to Costa Rica
Vishal Ramsubhag, the recent winner of the Boys Under-19 triple-crown triple at the Junior Caribbean Regional Badminton Confederation (CAREBACO) Championship, is set to compete at the Costa Rica Future Series Badminton Tournament.
The tournament will serve off at the BN Arena, Atillo, San Jose, Costa Rica, from Tuesday and will run until September 14.
The 18-year-old Ramsubhag, a former Naparima College student who leaves on Saturday for San Jose, says he will use the tournament in Central America as part of his preparations for the YONEX BWF World Junior Championships 2024, which will serve off in Nanchang, China, next month.
In China, the Mixed Team Championships (Suhandinata Cup) will be contested from September 30 to October 5, while the Individual Championships (Eye-Level Cups) run from Monday, October 7 to Sunday, October 13.
Last month in Aruba, top-seeded Ramsubhag was one of four T&T players to compete in the treble at the Junior CAREBACO Championship with Amara Urquhart (Girls Under-19), Asia Lee Waller (Girls Under-13), and Ethan Ramcharan (Boys Under-17), and looking ahead Ramsubhag said he has his eyes set on competing at the next Olympic Games in Lon Angeles in 2028.
However, in order to achieve his goal, Ramsubhag admitted he will need to be competing at a higher level and against top-quality international opposition on a regular basis, which is not available here in T&T.
Playing at the Centro Deportivo Playa in Vondellaan, Oranjestad, Ramsubhag defeated Jamaican Daniel Ford 21-18, 21-16 in the Boys’ Under-19 Singles decider while he captured the Boys Under-19 Doubles with Aditya Maharaj, 21-7, 21-9 over Daniel Ford of Jamaica and Barbadian Shaillon Johnson, and in the Mixed Doubles, Ramsubhag and Sanna Guria beat Maharaj and Urquhart 21-19, 21-8 for the U-19 crown.
Reflecting on his performances in Aruba, Ramsubhag, who created history in 2023 by winning the Boys’ Under-19 Singles for the first time since the tournament started in 1972 before successfully defending his title this year, said, “Winning the title in this age group and being the first T&T player to ever do so was a really exciting feeling last year, so repeating as champion was a kind of the same feeling.
“However, when I completed the triple crown, I felt an extra bit of happiness because a lot of people invested a lot of time and money into supporting me and my quest to reach the highest levels of the sport, and even though this is just the start, I felt like the three titles in Aruba were a way of repaying some of that faith shown in me.”
Looking ahead, Ramsubhag, a karate black belt, said he was going to continue to use the international tournaments as a learning curve, with his main focus on being ready for the qualification process for LA28.
The tournament in Costa Rica will feature players from Peru, El Salvador, Portugal, Canada, Ecuador, Guatemala, Barbados, Germany, England, USA, Paraguay, Chinese Taipei, and Brazil, to name a few.
For Ramsubhag, it will be his second international tournament of the season outside the Junior CAREBACO competition.
He said, “Prior to the CAREBACO, we participated at the Pan American Games Badminton Tournament in Mexico, and we had the opportunity to compete against top opposition from the USA, Canada, Peru, Brazil, and Mexico as well, and for me, it was a great learning curve as I gained a lot of experience as the level there is much higher than at CAREBACO.
Ramsubhag, who began playing the sport six years ago at school just out of curiosity and has also shown his diverse talent by winning the 2022 musical festival playing piano and was first in the South Zone earlier this year, admitted that to get to the Olympics he will need to put in a lot more work than he currently does.
“The next Olympic Games are in Los Angeles, but for me to qualify, I will need to put in a lot more sacrifice and hard work, and honestly, I don’t think that I can achieve that by staying in Trinidad.
“My plan is to further my studies in mechanical engineering while at the same time committing myself a lot more to the sport, and while Malaysia and China are the ideal places for me to develop myself in the sport, the two best possible places for me to have the right balance in my studies and badminton are the USA and England,” stated Ramsubhag.
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