UNIVERSITY OF THE West Indies student Cory Fanus gave himself a perfect 20th birthday gift by capturing the Barbados men’s singles badminton title when the National Championships climaxed on Sunday night at the Wildey Gymnasium.
Playing with total focus and a deceptive calm, Fanus stopped Combermere youth player Shae Martin 21-13, 21-13 to pick up his first national senior title. The bigger and more aggressive Martin never got his attacking game going with Fanus easily taking an 11-3 lead in the first game.
Although Martin fought back to 8-12, the more controlled Fanus never relented and he reopened another lead to take the opener. The second game was tied at six but in spite of some impressive smashes in the dying stages, Martin never looked like denying Fanus.
The champion indicated he never considered he was playing a junior and would be under pressure to win easily.
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