Two Edison badminton players with a wealth of experience made club history last weekend in Calgary.
Okotoks’ Denis Chernoff and Fiona McKee combined to win the mixed doubles gold medal at the Yonex Alberta Championships, April 7 at the ClearOne Badminton Centre in Calgary, to capture Edison Badminton Centre’s first provincial title at the Senior level.
“We actually lost the first game of the final and I knew those young guys were in such incredible shape that if I let them play what they wanted they would just run me until I was done,” said Chernoff, a physics student at the University of Calgary. “We had to exercise a more mental side of badminton, analyzing the rally and picking the proper places to hit the shuttle.
“Essentially maximizing your number of points while trying to minimize your work.”
The Chernoff-McKee team used their experience to come from behind and defeat Calgary’s Mac Lee and Kyleigh O’Donoghue 2-1 (15-21, 21-19, 21-15) in the tournament final.
Both Edison players have a tendency to rely on power over finesse on the courts so finding the right balance in shot selection is a gradual adjustment for the pair.
“We both have to work on those set-up shots instead of those power shots,” McKee said. “In those first two games in the tournament we weren’t quite finding the right mixed shots.”
The Edison team opened its provincial bid with a narrow straight sets win (21-18, 21-19) over Joshua Kryczka and Erin O’Donoghue. McKee and Chernoff then defeated Eric Reid and Melanie Aikenhead (21-18, 21-15) and advanced to the final with a 2-0 victory over (21-9, 21-19) Graydon Robb and Adriana Holcek.
“Going into the third game because we had such shaky first and second games we really focused in knowing the third game was going to be harder,” McKee said. “We played great that third game and continued it on into the finals.”
McKee’s experience in badminton is considerable. She’s won five national titles and was one spot away from making the Canadian team for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
Chernoff is no stranger to the court either.
The 2007 Edison School graduate has been competing in the sport since the age of nine and is coming off a gold medal at the California Junior International Tournament in the U23 men’s division.
As a mixed doubles pair, their resumes are considerably shorter, but the early alchemy as a pair looks to be just right in their two tournaments together.
“He can read me really well on the court so I don’t worry about whether he’s going to be there or not,” said McKee, a Grade 2 teacher at Edison School. “We feel comfortable with each other so we don’t really mind if we make a mistake so I’ll take a risk.
“Just the trust between each other that if I make a move and he’s still got my back even if it’s the wrong one really helps me.”
Chernoff corroborated the sentiment, adding he had to stray from his usual formula emphasizing power to blend in with his new teammate.
“Fiona has a very unique playing style so when you’re playing with her you need to try and feed into that,” he said. “It’s my second time playing in a tournament with her which isn’t a lot for most partnerships, but I’ve known her for a couple years, just never in tournaments.”
Fortunately for the relatively new pair, they had one of the most prolific mixed doubles players in their corner in Edison head coach Billy Gilliland.
The coach, a Commonwealth gold medalist in 1986 and the world’s number one ranked mixed doubles player from 1985-87, credited the duo for finding the chemistry needed to succeed.
“I was not as surprised as maybe other people were that they won it,” Gilliland said. “Denis has lots of power and Fiona is very, very quick and has lots of experience at a very high level.
“They’re just a very dynamic team. It’s terrific to watch them go that far.”
