Piencenaves retains badminton plum

Ian Piencenaves took the best dished out by the country’s top shuttler and proved again this time he’s better, thumping Kennevic Asuncion, 15-11, 15-6, yesterday and retaining the men’s singles crown in the JVC Open Badminton Championships before a big weekend crowd at the Glorietta Activity Center in Makati.

Kennie Asuncion gained some measure of pride for the Asuncions when she nailed the women’s singles crown for the third straight year with an emphatic 11-4, 11-3 victory over Irene Chiu. She later teamed up with former Olympian Weena Lim to beat the pair of Chiu and Paula Obanana, 15-6, 15-2, and claim the women’s doubles diadem.

Piencenaves matched Kennie Asuncion’s feat by teaming up with Arolas Amahit in a 15-9, 12-15, 15-5 victory over the tandem of Melvin Llamas and Jaime Junio for the men’s doubles crown.

Those efforts netted Piencenaves and Kennie Asuncion P25,000 each, including the P15,000 they won in the singles events of the annual championships sponsored by electronics giant JVC for the third straigth year. Kennevic Asuncion and Chiu settled for P10,000 each in the singles.

The taller Piencenaves, who needed three sets to wrest last year’s crown from 2001 JVC champion Kennevic, put the pressure on his archrival early, racing to a 9-3 lead before thwarting Asuncion’s repeated rallies to clinch the first set.

It was practically a one-sided affair in the second game with Piencenaves simply outclassing the veteran internationalist with his winners from smashes and drop shots while scoring a couple of points from his rivals’ errors.

Piencenaves said later he believed Asuncion did not play to his full potential like when the many-time spearhead of the national team to various international competitions reached the Last 32 of the recent World Championships in England.

"Parang hindi yun ang laro niya," said Piencenaves, who nevertheless showed the appreciative crowd that he’s got the moves, talent and skill to shine in competition of such magnitude.

Kennie Asuncion, mainstay of Valle Verde Country Club, was as devastating as she dominated Chiu from start to finish, needing only 19 minutes to put away the challenge of the Premier Club bet to reaffirm her claim as the country’s top lady shuttler.

The finals of the mixed doubles in the elite category were still being played at presstime along with the championships in the juniors 18-under category of the annual event staged by the IMG and backed by Pioneer Insurance, Gosen, Alaska Milk Corp., GenTxt, Tokyo Tokyo, Accel, Ayala Center, I-Ayala, Rudy Project, K-Lite 103.5 and The STAR.

Meanwhile, the celebrity tournament featuring 24 of the country’s TV, movie and sports personalities starts at 1 p.m. with the exhibition game between the Philippines and Indonesia set at 2:30 p.m.