2013 GRAND CANYON STATE GAMES

June 22, AZBC, Mesa...

We have run the Grand Canyon State Games badminton event every year since the Games began in 1993, but this was the first time at the AZBC! We changed the format somewhat to include just the 3 events, Women's Doubles, Men's Doubles and Mixed Doubles but added a round-robin Olympic style format so that participants played in many more matches. There was lots of exciting matches and very tired competitors by the end of the day.

Bui Hoang (photo at left courtesy of Clement Singarajah) was a double-Gold Medal winner teaming with Chin Khor to take the Men's Doubles title and teamed with Chin's daughter, Kai-Ning, to take the Mixed Doubles. Yukari Katayama won the Gold Medal in Women's Doubles with Kiyoko Hashimoto and the Silver Medal in Mixed with Saburo Sakai.

A special POWER PLAY award for sportsmanship and character is also given at each GCSG's event and this year the POWER PLAY went to the entire Hashimoto family! Not only do the Hashimotos -- Steve, Theo, Seigo, Kiyoko (and little Kiseki) -- play at a high level, winning 8 medals among them, but they are a joy to have participate with their extraordinary sportsmanship. Below are the tournament results.

WOMEN'S DOUBLES:

Gold: Kiyoko Hashimoto & Yukari Katayama; Silver: Theo Hashimoto & Jill Yang; Bronze: Darcy Frear & Monica Xiong

MEN'S DOUBLES:

Gold: Bui Hoang & Chin Khor; Silver: Steve Hashimoto & Calvin Nguyen; Bronze: Seigo Hashimoto & Chris Hsieh; Shibu Bhavanam & Ashish Pingale

MIXED DOUBLES:

Gold: Bui Hoang & Kai-Ning Khor; Silver: Saburo Sakai & Yukari Katayama; Bronze: Steve & Theo Hasimoto; Seigo & Kiyoko Hashimoto