Role Model: A person looked to by others as an example to be imitated.
You will never meet someone more deserving of being called a role model than Pal. After working together for the past decade, I now realize that the most important things he has ever taught me have nothing to do with badminton but rather something much more important and valuable. I hope to one day be half as dedicated, passionate, hard working and respected as Pal is.
I was cleaning my room the other day and was shocked to find a couple tapes of some old badminton matches of mine. I decided to throw a couple of the good ones up on my YouTube channel with the intent of not only backing them up, but also to share with some family and friends.
The match above is probably one of my most memorable. It was my final year of eligibility for junior badminton. I was going into the National Championships unseeded (something I was a bit surprised about to be honest after playing fairly well all year) and had a tough draw. I managed to somehow play my way through 2 seeded players and 2 other strong competitors to make it into the semi finals where I faced the number 1 seed, Avish Makol.
I had beaten Avish once before at Canadian Senior Nationals in Winnipeg but had more recently lost in two straight games at a junior tournament in Alberta earlier in the year. He was playing pretty good and was probably favored to win the tournament. The match ended up being pretty amazing. Lots of yelling, screaming and emotions (almost to the point of humorous) as we both battled for a spot in the National finals. It ended up being pretty much as close as it can get by going to extra points in the third game. Despite battling back from a couple match points and having one of my own, Avish won.
A year or so after this match Avish died in a tragic motorcycle accident in India. While I was never close to him on a personal level, I have a tremendous amount of respect for him as a competitor. RIP
Video Series Is The 2nd & 3rd Game In Best Of 3 Match
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca-JnnArfPE
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Y6M7hPSsXg
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHa-tX7hojM
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