Debutants Make a Mark – World Juniors
Text by BWF
Trinidad & Tobago, playing their first BWF World Junior Mixed Team Championships, notched their first win in Nanchang despite missing their womenâs doubles players.
The Caribbeans, whose womenâs doubles players stayed home due to health reasons, have been able to field only three players in all their ties â Vishal Ramsubhag, Jace Smith and Samiya Karim. After finishing last in their group and now competing for positions 33-40, they held off Mongolia in a tense finish in womenâs singles, 110-106.
âIt means a lot. Itâs our first time and weâre happy we could at least have a win over Mongolia,â said Smith.
Mongolia led for the most part, and by the seventh match, were up 66-50. Ramsubhag and Smith in the second menâs doubles kept the Caribbeans in the hunt, as they narrowed the deficit to just four. When it went to the final match between Saniya Karim and Mongoliaâs Tselmeg-Od Enkhlen, Trinidad & Tobago were up by 11 points.
Enkhlen threatened to take the tie Mongoliaâs way, but Karim just about helped her team breast the tape at 110-106.

âIâm still nervous. I still canât believe we won the tie,â said Karim. âItâs our first time at the World Juniors and itâs an unreal experience. I was shaking. I was telling myself to keep going, that itâs just a few points.â
âOf course we believed,â said Ramsubhag. âWe never lost faith. It was frightful, though. Weâve made a mark â that was the goal. (For the future) we will keep going harder and harder, until we beat Denmark!â