Team Nunavut dominating in badminton at the North American Indigenous Games - Action News
Home WebMail Tuesday, November 26, 2024, 07:04 PM | Calgary | -7.0°C | Regions Advertise Login | Our platform is in maintenance mode. Some URLs may not be available. |
NorthVideo

Team Nunavut dominating in badminton at the North American Indigenous Games

Team Nunavut is dominating badminton at the 2017 North American Indigenous Games.

The majority of the team will be competing at quarter-finals on Thursday

The majority of team Nunavut's players five out of eight came from a tiny Inuit community in the southernmost part of the territory: Sanikiluaq. (Garrett Hinchey/CBC)

Nunavut's Nolan Kiguktak is on a winning-streak at the North American Indigenous Games (NAIG).

"Haven't lost a game yet. Feeling confident," said the 17-year-old badminton player from Grise Fiord, Nunavut.

But he's not the only Nunavut youth dominating the competition.

With just two days left of NAIG, seven out of Team Nunavut'seight players made the quarter-finals in singles, as well as six of the territory's eight doubles teams.

"I was a little nervous at first, but now I feel like I was nervous for nothing," said Kiguktak, a first-timer at NAIG. He prepared by practicing "day after day after day" with the only other three players he knows in his community of about 130.

Team Nunavut plays badminton at NAIG

7 years ago
Duration 0:27
Team Nunavut is dominating in badminton at the North American Indigenous Games.

But the majority of the team's players five out of eightcame from another tiny Inuit community in the southernmost part of the territory: Sanikiluaq.

"We're not really fighting for gym time," said the team's coach Stephen Keoughan, who moved to Sanikiluaq 12 years ago.

He says he saw badminton as a natural fit for smaller communities that don't have enough people for sports like volleyball or basketball.

"They have a very strong badminton club and a very dedicated club," saidcompetitor Anna Lambe from Iqaluit, who'sheading to the quarter-finals for doubles.

"They also get far more clinics, badminton clinics, than the rest of the other places, because they do have a higher count of kids playing badminton than anywhere else."

But there's a catch.

"One of our biggest weaknesses in Nunavut is the fact that our kids don't get to play with different people. They're all isolated," said Keoughan.

Quarter-finals and semifinal competitions are Thursday, and the fight for the medals on Friday.

"My kids are better than I am," said the hopeful Keoughan who's never played competitively.

"Tomorrow should be another today. It should be good."

With files from Garrett Hinchey