Badminton is his Passion
by ACAC Sports Writer Curtis J. Phillips
You can find just about anything or everything on the World Wide Web www.
There is a internet site titled bwfbadminton.com that ranks badminton players world-wide.
Type in the name Imran Wadia and you will find a world ranking of 1,149 for men's singles and 644 for men's doubles.
Not bad for the 20 year-old student/athlete now attending NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology) in Edmonton and playing for the Ooks badminton team within the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC).
His father Sarosh Wadia, introduced Wadia to the sport at a young age: "He showed me when I was little and I liked it right away. I played more-and-more and then at eight or nine, I started to go to group lessons and progressed from there."
Graduating from Calgary's Bishop O'Byrne Senior High, he headed to the west coast to attend Langara College in Vancouver, British Columbia.
As a member of the Falcons badminton team, he teamed up Eric Chiu to win the Pacific Western Athletic Association (PACWEST) men's doubles gold by beating out Bradley Low and Ethan Bui of Kwantlen Polytechnic University. The school would also defend their PACWEST team banner.
At the 2014-2015 Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) badminton championships held in Halifax, Nova Scotia and hosted by University of Kings College, Wadia and Chiu were disqualified giving the bronze medal to Humber Hawks.
For the 2015-2016 season, Wadia decided to take off a year of studies.
"Our school (Langara) was no longer giving out scholarships, so I decided to concentrate solely on badminton," said Wadia, who perhaps foresaw the future of the sport as it would dropped a year later by the PACWEST.
With financial assistance from his parents and monies received working as a badminton coach, Wadia hit the Canadian badminton circuit which is sponsored in part by Yonex.
The year off seemed to help as according to Badminton Canada, in men's singles he went from a low ranking of 80 in 2015 to a high ranking of No. 10 near the end of 2016.
His highest polling for men's doubles is an impressive seventh.
"I was training up to four hours per day seven-days-a-week," recalls Wadia, who is currently enrolled in NAIT's Wireless Systems Engineering Technology two-year program.
Wadia credits his parents for continuing to promote his love for the sport.
"In Canada you have to raise your own funds to travel and play in tournaments...some of the top players may have sponsors. For me it was my parents. They knew that I really love the sport, so they assisted with the travel. They believe in me."
His travel included tournament appearances in Calgary, Moncton, Toronto and Winnipeg.
Wadia continues: "They (parents) came here (from India) with very little money and they are a bit different from other Asian parents that came to Canada. They can be strict at times but they give us freedom and they let us learn from our own mistakes and grow from that."
Wadia, who says he is a big fan of China's Lin Dai, two –time Olympic gold medalist in men's singles (2008 Beijing; 2012 London), says it is his own goal to "represent Canada one day at the Olympics."
"Badminton is my passion," said Wadia, who in his first ACAC appearances November 20, 2016, captured men's singles, beating teammate Andy Ko 21-1517-2121-16. "I want to get better and you never know, it could one day lead to the Olympics?"
Wadia was paired with Ooks' Tyler Walsh in men's doubles at the season opener and defeated teammates Jeffrey Ko and Nicholas Roque 22-20 and 21-14 in the final.
At the ACAC second tournament, which was hosted this past weekend by The Kings University Eagles in Edmonton, Wadia once again batted his way to medals, claiming silver in men's singles and men's doubles losing to teammate Andy Ko 21-1 4, 21-16 and Andy Ko/Roque 21-16, 21-19 respectively.
"The attitude here at NAIT is great…it is a great place to train," said Wadia. "Badminton is a great sport...a diverse sport that works every part of the body. It's too bad that it is not popular in North America.
"Right now I just have to keep working hard…keep training and stay with a positive mind set and push myself every day and learn new things along the way."