Jeffrey Rong misses out on Connacht U15 title

Seeded at number two, his opening match was against Charan Deep Rajulapati and it was a titanic clash lasting 33 minutes before the Alpha youngster booked his place in Round three though his next opponent was the Dunboyne Junior club’s Aaryan Maheesh.

This was another tough contest for the local player with Rong taking the opening set at a canter 21-10 but the second was a much closer contest with Rong, at his best, booking his place in the quarter final 21-10 in 34 minutes.

Jerald Baiju was his next opponent and it was the No5/8 seed who was to seriously test this young Alpha opponent before Rong secured the opening set 21-19 and duly booked his place in the semi-final 21-13 in an energy sapping 30 minute encounter.

The semi-final saw Jeffrey face Zach Mcauley with a place in the final as the reward, ensuring that neither player would give up easily while Zach had already knocked out Jeffrey’s Alpha club mate Jamie Blakeman in the quarter-final 21-14 19-21 21-16.

It was Jeffrey who was however to go one set down as the Raphoe player took the opening set 21-14 but as the second reached its final stages and with both semi-finalists at the top of their game, it was Jeffrey whose nerves held out and he secured the second set 21-18.

Having fought his way through to securing that second set we saw Jeffrey grow in confidence and he booked his place in the final 21-14 to face Rhys Macauley who earlier had ended the hopes of the top seed Andrew Hassett from BI Academy.

Not unexpectedly the final was always going to be a tight affair and so it proved with Jeffrey Rong ever so narrowly missing out on the title 21-18 21-17, the clash lasting 35 minutes but a far cry from the semi-final encounter which had lasted just two minutes short of the hour mark.