The University of Toronto Varsity Blues badminton team finished in second at the 2024 YONEX Canadian University College Badminton Championship on Thursday (Mar. 14) in Waterloo, Ont.

After a spectacular first day of competition on Wednesday in which the Blues went a perfect 4-0, U of T matched up with the host Waterloo Warriors in the championship final Thursday morning. However, in a rematch of the OUA provincial championship gold medal match just a week ago, where the Blues claimed their 10^th OUA banner in the team event, the Warriors were able to avenge the prior loss and relegate Toronto to the second step at the national championship event.

On the court for the gold medal match, the Blues split the men's and women's doubles contests with the team of Jacqueline Cheung and Jackie Dent earning the lone victory for Toronto in convincing fashion. The duo earned quick 21-9 and 21-5 set wins to claim the win in just under 25 minutes.

The difference-maker for the home side came in form of two hard fought singles victories. In the longest bout of the day lasting over 40 minutes, U of T's Chloe Choi came up just short in the women's singles match, falling 22-20 and 21-19. Meanwhile, Blues teammate Harold Tan held an early advantage in the men's singles match, winning the first set 21-18, but his Waterloo counterpart bounced back with 21-10 and 21-18 victories.

Following the team portion of the 2024 YONEX Canadian University College Badminton Championship, the individual competition will begin this afternoon and proceed into Saturday (Mar. 16). 20 Blues players in Jacqueline Cheung, Ryan Zheng, Chloe Choi, Victor Huang, Brooks Liu, Nathan Mills, Sam Sui, Johnson Tam, Edward Zhang, Kate Dong, Yuxuan Wang, Joanna Xu, Jessica Zhou, Jocelyn Jaw, Michael Law, Minh Pham, Wei An Peng, Jackie Dent, Harold Tan, and Linda Zhao are scheduled to compete in the individual portion of the national event.

FINAL RESULTS

Pool A
Waterloo - 3-0
York - 2-1 
Sherbrooke - 1-2
UQAM - 0-3
 
Pool B
Toronto - 3-0
Montreal - 2-1
Laval - 1-2
Ont. Tech - 0-3

Semifinals
Toronto def. York - 3-1
Waterloo def. Montreal - 3-1

Bronze Medal Match
York def. Montreal - 3-2

Gold Medal Match
Waterloo def. Toronto - 3-1