There’s nothing quite like an athlete playing with the competitive fire of having a chip on his or her shoulder.
And that’s right where Prince Rupert’s Adrian Liu finds himself, after a clerical error by Badminton Canada knocked him and his men’s doubles partner, Derrick Ng, out of the 2015 Pan Am Games.
“We were both quite devastated and speechless when we had found out that we were taken out of the tournament,” said Liu last week.
“Definitely more so disappointed at the fact that we wouldn’t be able to play alongside our teammates and also in front of our home crowd and country. Not being able to have a chance to win a medal for our country, friends and family is the most upsetting part of it all.”
Now, all the former Rupertite can do is fight from behind, having lost the chance to earn Badminton World Federation points at the Pan Am Games for the upcoming Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Training in Richmond, Liu and Ng are preparing for a year of hard-fought tournaments all over the world. This past year alone, they’ve played in the Commonwealth Games in Scotland and in other badminton tourneys in New York, China, Calgary and Denmark, among other places.
The pair are so intent on training to make it to Rio, they chose to forego travelling to Toronto for the Pan Am festivities.
“Our accreditation was no longer valid due to the situation. We were offered to be flown there and have tickets to the event, but chose to stay in Vancouver and prepare for the upcoming World Championships in Jakarta [Indonesia] on Aug. 10,” said Liu.
“But [I’ve] definitely wished my friends/teammates/second family the best of luck in the event and would be supporting them from here.”
“I’d like to give a big thank you to everybody who supported us through this. We will fight every step of the way to make everybody proud.”