Complete results of UCB / GG Open!! Thank you Kwun for posting the consolation photos as well! Here are ALL the detailed results as made easy reading by Chris Lawrence!! Mens Singles Winner: Eric Go Runner-up: Wei Qin Zi Consolation Winner: Emmet Gibney Consolation Runner-up: Neil Davies Womens Singles Winner: Lili Zhou Runner-up: Lauren Todt Consolation Winner: Daphne Ng Consolation Runner-up: Vimla Phongasavithas Mens Doubles Winner: Eric Go - Halim Haryanto Ho Runner-up: Nicholas Jinadasa - Ba Su Mens Doubles 'B' Winner: Dennis Duong - Nam Ngo Mens Doubles 'B' Runner-up: Chris Hales - Radu Milevschi Mens Doubles 'C' Winner: Yee Ong - Harry Tan Mens Doubles 'C' Runner-up: Steven Meister - Stanley Wo Mens Doubles 'D' Winner: Cheng-Wu Tam - Frank Yang Mens Doubles 'D' Runner-up: Calvin Lin - Sy Nitti Womens Doubles Winner: Angeline De Pauw - Mona Santoso Runner-up: Johannah Lee - Yun Peng Consolation Winner: Ruilin Chen - Tiffanie Kimura Consolation Runner-up: Daphne Chang - Ru Zhang Mixed Doubles Winner: Halim Haryanto Ho - Angeline De Pauw Runner-up: Eric Go - Eva Lee Consolation Winner: Calvin Lin - Kuei-Ya Chen Consolation Runner-up: Emmet Gibney - Laura Vandervet Senior Mens Doubles Winner: Robert Kuah - Jack Soong Runner-up: Paul Koo - Erik Setiadi 3rd Place: Imre Bereknyei - Kaan Ting 4th Place: Alan Chan - Kenneth Gee Senior Womens Doubles Winner: Kitty Tanaka - Sally Yeh Runner-up: Doris Huey - Teresa Lau Senior Mixed Doubles Winner: Jinsong Guo - Sally Yeh Runner-up: Imre Bereknyei - Mari Ikeda 3rd Place: Paul Koo - Kitty Tanaka
Kwun, thanks again for sharing your new pics...Wow, looks like the event was a successful one; hopefully this will be a start of many2 more tournaments to come... Hmm, sorry, hope i'm not putting the GGBC's Mgt in a spot, but from the 2 additional wide angle pics, IMO, looks like getting a portable taller seating area for this type of event is definitely something to think abt, since it looks like GGBC has enough space for them... BTW, is that the boss of United Commercial Bank in one of the pic??..Do you his name??..
Hmm, i see....But reading in the hotel?? Is that for assignment/school or leisure?? You could've gone with them and go sightseeing...
btw, there was a TV cameramen there briefly for an hour or two. i think from ABC7. anybody caught anything on the local TV news?
yeah. i agree. in fact, that's one of the suggestions i sent to Mike/Sally, taller seating and more space between spectators and court. to their defense though, they did buy a few of them, but i think the event was so successful they probably didn't expect so many ppl to show up! i think so, i don't know his name. maybe Sally can fill that in. UCB has committed to another year of sponsorship, for GGBC Open 2007.
Hmm, i see...Wow, that's a wonderful news and gesture by UCB, if UCB is willing to sponsor next yr's tournament again. I know it's not a "big" tournament, but IMO, sponsoring an event like this will benefit the sport in the long run, esp. in the Bay area....On that note, who knows, perhaps(just suggesting, not recommending them to do so) UCB can help purchase or rent those taller seatings??..
Tournament seating The Chairman of United Commercial Bank is Mr. Tommy Wu. He is a very nice man. His wife Jessa Wu is a member and a good friend of ours. About the seating. I did ask Mike about that and he gave me some sensible answers. 1./ if we have higher bleachers, the weight of the people may have adverse impact and effect on our floors. Our floors are very expensive and we want to take good care of them. 2./ With higher bleachers there is a risk of people toppling over. Just on the 3 tiers people were standing up in excitement sometimes and of course when grabbing those birdies that the players hit out. I dont' even know how people can get down or up to seat themselves if there are like 6 tiers. I remember at one event in HKG coliseum, Andy Lau threw a gift to the upper tiers and someone caught it but fell over the safety bar and toppled to his death. Since then, we are not allowed to even throw things to the front seats. 3./ The higher the bleacher the wider space it needs on the bottom. We don't have that kind of space on the sides of our gym. 4./ We have no storage space once the games are done. Mike has spent alot of time to think what is the best way since he is very conscious of everything being of standard but also cost effective. Wanting everyone the chance to be spectator he didn't want to charge for this tournament. Bleachers are very expensive and to rent the charges are even higher. We too were surprised of the generous number of such a responsive crowd. As we all know even the world championships didn't pull in full capacity at Anaheim on the finals day. Thomas / Uber in Japan was considered sparse by my concert experience much to my surprise. I've never sang to so little people! In HKG QE stadium only seats capacity of 2000 or so and on the last day of a 6 star World champion complete roster tournament, there were still seats available. Most of the best seating was VIP so the capacity was quite little. So comparatively, GGBC did really well, and the seating was quite adequate I thought because most people were actually seated or standing. In most of the touranments I see all over Bay Area EVERYone was sitting on the floor, including me, at the last tourney I entered at Gunn High. Mike didn't want that so he did the best he could. The 2 bleachers he got was already much over his budget and it was a panic because one of the seats arrived quite damaged so Frank had to punt and pound to make it useable and they sent another but arrived after the tournament sooo........ it's ain't easy!!! Sally
thanks Sally for the explanation! the seating as it stands is already is major improvement to the floor sitting arrangement of other tournaments. i think most audience appreciate the comfort of sitting there instead of the floor, or standing up all day. the seating contribute their part to the success of the GGBC Open. we are just expressing what could make it more attractive. however, if it is infeasible to do, it is totally understandable!
Appreciate the explanation & just a few comments... Appreciate for the explanation Sally-some of Sally's post snipped for brevity; and want to add a few comments from myself. Hope the GGBC mgt won't mind.. understandable.. understandable also..Hmm, since you mentioned about people throwing items into the stands, i remember(i'm sure you do also) during last yr's World Championship also(i believe during the SF or Finals), there were cheerleaders shooting t-shirts into the crowd, even shooting them as high as the upper tier seating.. hmm, i see...I guess in terms of the club having multi-function incl. as a "spectator hall", for whatever reason(s) the mgt was never really able to provide a spectator seating area, in case, they may have a tournament like these. On that note, i'm not sure if other bay area badminton clubs have these or not?!?!Can Kwun or anyone else confirm on this??..Because in SoCal, the only full-time badminton club which has a spectator seating area is OCBC. Thus they are able to hold smaller to IBF-sanctioned U.S. Open tournaments...anyways, i understand.. Understandable...But how abt renting, which i know can be quite expensive.. Hmm, i see...Anyways, for the first "big" tournament being held @ GGBC, i can say from looking at the picture, it was a big success and I'm sure it was a very successful event. Despite the free admission and all... Concur also with Kwun...Anyhoo, pardon for our(my) "suggestions", hope Sally and the GGBC mgt won't mind us(me) expressing them. It's just such *a small* issue which, at least myself (who don't know the real story), saw as an area for a possible "improvement" for future tourney @ GGBC...
After reading this thread.. darn i miss alot. Hope i can visit GGBC one day and see the folks there.Thumbs up to the organisers, kwun and the rest who help out. Congrats for having a successful event!
understandable also..Hmm, since you mentioned about people throwing items into the stands, i remember(i'm sure you do also) during last yr's World Championship also(i believe during the SF or Finals), there were cheerleaders shooting t-shirts into the crowd, even shooting them as high as the upper tier seating.. >>YES I SAW THAT AS WELL AND REALLY WANT TO BUY THE T-SHIRT GUNS ACTUALLY BUT THE SEATING IN ANAHEIM WAS NOT STEEP AT ALL. I SAT IN THE LAST ROW ON THE FIRST DAY AND IT WAS ROOMY AND NOT STEEP. IF WE HAVE A 6 TIER ALUMINUM BLEACHER IT WILL BE QUITE STEEP, AND I WOULD FIND, RATHER UNSTABLE. Because in SoCal, the only full-time badminton club which has a spectator seating area is OCBC. Thus they are able to hold smaller to IBF-sanctioned U.S. Open tournaments...anyways, i understand.. >>THERE ARE SOME BLEACHERS LIKE SCHOOL GYM BLEACHERS AND THE ONES AT OCBC THAT CAN BE PUSHED FLAT AGAINST THE WALL. THOSE HAVE TO BE CONSIDERED IF YOU OWN THE BUILDING AND CAN PUT THOSE IN THE BLUE PRINTS FROM DRAWING BOARD STAGE. THOSE ARE GREAT. THEY ARE NOT STEEP, MULTI SEATING AND CAN PROVIDE FUNCTIONAL USE FOR THE FLOOR IF THEY ARE PUT AWAY BUT ONCE PULLED OUT WILL TAKE UP ALOT OF ROOM. Concur also with Kwun...Anyhoo, pardon for our(my) "suggestions", hope Sally and the GGBC mgt won't mind us(me) expressing them. It's just such *a small* issue which, at least myself (who don't know the real story), saw as an area for a possible "improvement" for future tourney @ GGBC... >>OH THAT IS NO PROBLEM MIKE LOVES SUGGESTIONS BUT HE JUST WANTS TO LET YOU KNOW THE REASON WE COULD NOT PROVIDE THE ADEQUATE SEATING. WE HOPE WE WILL HAVE THAT PROBLEM IN THE FUTURE BECAUSE IF WE DO, THAT MEANS BADMINTON WILL ACHIEVE IT'S POPULARITY LEVEL! SALLY
hmm, i see. Sorry, i didn't know abt the overall bldg size of GGBC or how much space it has(i had to rely only on the pics)..oh, i just remember, there's a teen recreational center here near my house, which has 2 types of spectator bench seating:a 3-4 tier seating area that is not high(i believe it's fixed though) as well as a taller seating area. They're not really the same as the ones @ OCBC, but quite sufficient. The gym is used for many different sports: basketball, volleyball as well as badminton. If i have a chance, i'll take a pic of the place and show those bench-seating to you guys...
OT: Chris, you keep using the "" icon in wrong places. = sarcastic. In general, it's a negative connotation and I know you. You are nice guy. So unless you are being negative, I suggest you not use "". And if you are trying to be funny, sorry, I didn't see it.
>>THAT WOULD BE GREAT CTJCAD. WOULD LOVE TO SEE PHOTOS OF THE GYM YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT!! BUT WE HAVE 8 COURTS AND THERE IS BARELY ENOUGH ROOM BETWEEN EACH ONE EXCEPT BY THE C COURTS WHICH EVERYONE LOVES TO HANG OUT THERE. IT'S ROOMY WITH 4, 3 TIER BENCHES NOW AND YOU CAN SEE ALL THE GOOD PLAYERS PLAY. PLUS YOU CAN GOSSIP, MUNCH FROM OUR BAKERY, AND CHAT USELESS JIBBERISH!! HA HA!!! SALLY
hehe, no problem, i'm not trying to be sarcastic/or being in a negative way....i use the rolleyes icon(at least in here), eventhough it's noted as (sarcastic), to show as one is "to wonder/wondering", at least to me(as i don't know what's the standard/reg. icon for "sarcastic" and "wondering/to wonder")...erm, like for example this post #12 by LazyBuddy http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=396297#post396297...mu guess he put that icon to show that he's "wondering", and not being sarcastic..hehe
Hmmm.... Not to butt in or anything, but I always kind of thought the icon was a kind of a SHYYY kind of expression, like "hmmm... whatdayathink"? kind of look? Yah.. I kind of took it as "wondering" too. Just giving my 2 bits. Sorry for being intrusive... Sally
Angie and Mona This pairing went as far as QF of the recent Indo Open 2006. They are both from Surabaya. Angie has a brother Holvy DePauw who is playing for France now.
Angie In Macau >>ANGIE IS NOW GOING TO THE MACAU OPEN ON JULY 19TH I THINK. I THINK SHE IS PLAYING MIXED WITH HALIM. HALIM SAID THEY NEEDED THE PRACTICE TOGETHER AT THE GG OPEN. I WAS INVITED AS GUEST OF HONOR BUT I CAN'T MAKE IT COS I WANNA STAY IN GGBC A LITTLE MORE BEFORE I GO BACK!! SO I WILL MISS THEM BUT YOU GUYS TRACK EM DOWN SO WE CAN SEE THE RESULTS. IT WILL BE INTERESTING TO SEE HOW THEY FARE THERE! SALLY
