GWSC wins Gold and Silver in ‘All Schools’ Badminton
History has again been made by our GWSC ‘Senior Boys’ and GWSC ‘Senior Girls’ representative badminton teams…..who recently took home gold and silver medals respectively in the premier ‘Open Divisions’ of the 2025 Badminton Victoria ‘All Schools’ State Championships.
Congratulations to Ivan Liang (Year 7), Jamie Zhu (Year 10), Nicholas Ung (Year 10), Ashton Aw (Year 10), Yuhao Shen (Year 11) and Ivan Cheng (Year 12) who came together to form our gold medal and State Title winning ‘Senior Boys’ badminton team. This victory was historic, as it marks the first time a government school has won the Ken Coleman Perpetual Trophy back-to-back after taking out the premier ‘Open Division’ of the Badminton Victoria ‘All Schools’ Boys State Championships twice in succession. Our super six were ably supported by our terrific student coaches Raghav Ananthanathan (Year 10) and Jivi Rajkumar Sathiyanarayanan (Year 11) who both helped guide and encourage our ‘Senior Boys’ badminton team to victory.
Ivan Liang also made his own unique entry in the record books, becoming the youngest member of any secondary school team to win a gold medal in the ‘Open Division’ of the Badminton Victoria ‘All Schools’ Boys State Championships in just his first year of high school at the ripe old age of 13! Clearly lucky for some…..
Kudos also to Didi Nguyen (Year 8), Phuong-Nhi Nguyen (Year 10), Dorothy Liang (Year 10), Cynthia Luangsirirangsee (Year 10), Natalie Trinh (Year 11) and Sarah Ung (Year 12) who were all members of our silver medal winning ‘Senior Girls’ badminton team. They are also history makers as they were the first GWSC ‘Senior Girls’ badminton team to qualify for the Grand Final in the premier ‘Open Division’ of the Badminton Victoria ‘All Schools’ Girls State Championships and also the first GWSC team to win a silver medal as Runners-Up in the Meredith Prime Perpetual Trophy. They were assisted throughout the tournament by our magnificent student coaches Tara Trinh (Year 10) and Kiya Kotapalli (Year 11) who both helped coach and umpire our team on their journey to the silver medal.
Both our ‘Senior Girls’ and ‘Senior Boys’ teams faced some serious competition during the tournament, with many Victorian and Australian representative players competing in the ‘All Schools’ Badminton State Championships that were open to all public, private and independent schools from right across Victoria. Our ‘Senior Girls’ badminton team won all of their preliminary round matches against Doncaster Secondary College, Reservoir High School and East Doncaster Secondary College in a walkover. They finished on top of Group B and qualified for the Grand Final against the only other undefeated team in the tournament, Maribyrnong Sports Academy, which turned out to be a thrilling contest. Our girls fought hard against a very experienced MSA outfit, winning one of the three singles matches and then squaring up the final at two rubbers each after securing another victory in the A1 Doubles. This meant the match would be decided by the second doubles encounter, which Maribyrnong Sports Academy managed to secure after coming from behind just before the change of ends. Although our ‘Senior Girls’ badminton team went down 3 rubbers to 2 against MSA, they were all smiling from ear to ear whilst receiving their silver medals after an incredible contest between the two best girls’ teams in the State!
During the Qualifying Rounds, our ‘Senior Boys’ took on and clinically defeated teams from Wesley College, East Preston Islamic College, Kardinia International College and Beaconhills College. This resulted in GWSC finishing top of Group B and qualifying for the Grand Final against, you guessed it, Maribyrnong Sports Academy. All of our players held their nerve in some stunning rallies and hard-fought games, in three singles and two doubles contests, to clinch the Grand Final three rubbers to two in favour of Glenny. This is the second successive time that GWSC have won the Ken Coleman Perpetual Trophy for the premier 'Open Boys' Division of the ‘All Schools’ State Badminton Championships.
This ‘Open Division’ win for our ‘Senior Boys’ at State ‘All Schools’, along with our ‘Senior Girls’ finishing runners-up in their State ‘All Schools’ Open Division, in addition to our victory in the SSV State ‘Intermediate Boys’ competition and second placing in the ‘Senior Mixed/Boys’ SSV State Badminton competition this year, once again secures our position as the best ‘Secondary School’ Senior Badminton program in Victoria.
Both of our 2025 Badminton Victoria ‘All Schools’ State Championship teams represented themselves and our college so very well both on and off the court throughout the tournament. They were humble in victory and defeat, respected all officials and opponents at all times, supported one another and fellow players from other teams in the correct manner, whilst also playing some absolutely breathtaking badminton which displayed their power, finesse, speed, agility and mental fortitude. Kudos to you all on being amazing badminton players and fantastic student coaches, but more importantly incredible people!
Huge shout-out to our GWSC Alumni coaches, Miss Ellyce Trinh and Mr Adam Zhu, who kindly volunteered their time and efforts to help coach our ‘Senior Girls’ and ‘Senior Boys’ badminton teams in the lead-up to ‘All Schools’ State Championships this year. They also superbly supported our teams throughout the state tournament and helped inspire them to compete at their very best! Special thanks to our GWSC staff members Mrs Carla Gagliardi, Mr John Healy and Mr Mark Robinson who also helped train and coach both our ‘Senior Boys’ and ‘Senior Girls’ Badminton representative teams in the lead up to the ‘All Schools’ State Championships. Additionally, they accompanied our students to MSAC Stadiums for the state tournament, where they provided continued support and encouragement to both of our representative badminton teams.
#GoGlenny’GOOD’minton!