Announcing the winners of the MGA Badminton Tournament!
Not only did 24 teams compete in the MGA tournament in late May, but graduate students showed up to the court in droves to support their friends and make a racket, bringing an exciting and fun atmosphere to the games.
One Wednesday evening in late May, the MGA ran a friendly badminton doubles tournament for Monash graduate students at Monash Sport on Clayton Campus.
Nitish Rai, the leader of the MGA’s weekly badminton games and tournament coordinator was relieved to get a 99% attendance, despite the fact that it took place on a weekday.
“The main purpose for holding the tournament was to get everyone to the courts to take a break from their busy and hectic student lives,” said Nitish. “We also wanted to bring out the best in everyone.”
The biggest challenge for Nitish was managing the games running across six courts. “It wouldn’t have been possible to keep track of all the scores and winners without the support of MGA volunteers, so special thanks to all of them for helping me out” he said.
As the tournament progressed, the top two teams from the respective groups qualified for the quarterfinals, followed by semifinals and then the grand final. For the final game, Nitish tossed the coin and the winning team decided to serve first.
At that point, the spectators surrounded the court. “Everyone was applauding and cheering and the entire hall was reverberating. It was great to see so much energy on the court from a huge crowd coming to cheer for their teams,” said Nitish. “It was an overwhelming response.”
Both the teams showed extraordinary skills in the neck-to-neck competition.
The winners were Vaibhav Pahuja and Sajeet Mathew Johnson from Team Shoot.
Team Tyagi and Venky came second and Aditya Rahmat and Eka Denyaz from Team GarudaMuda came in third.
Badminton is a great platform to get physical and socialise at the same time. “It’s like a meet-up for making new friends from different disciplines,” said Nitish. “I would like to welcome everyone who wants to join us at our weekly games!”
Nitish runs MGA badminton games every week (and throughout the semester break) on Wednesdays and Fridays from 7:00pm – 9:00pm at Monash Sport on Clayton Campus.
- Click here to find out more about weekly MGA Badminton
- Email Nitish to make enquiries or to register your interest: nitish.rai@monash.edu