Burnaby’s RuiLin Huang was the undoubted queen of the court at the Canadian Colleges’ Athletic Association badminton championships.
The fifth-year Douglas College accounting student won an unprecedented fifth consecutive women’s singles title – the first-ever five-time women’s champion since the CCAA began keeping records in 1982.
At her final national collegiate championship, Huang swept her entire competition, including a 21-12, 21-13 victory over Vancouver Island University wild card opponent Melissa Liew in the gold-medal final.
Huang, who has won five straight PacWest provincial titles, has a career college record of 207 wins and just one defeat in a team match.
That one loss came in her third year in Canada to a Chinese player from Edmonton in three games. She reversed that loss in straight sets in the individual singles final.
“It was my first year for regular classes (after two years of English language training). All my attention was on school, and when I was at the tournament, I was still doing my marketing homework,” Huang said.
Huang is a four-time CCAA female badminton player of the year and was named the national association’s female athlete of the year across all sports in 2012. She is also a five-time PacWest player of the year.
When the 18-year-old Huang first came to Canada in 2008 to attend Douglas, she defeated five-time Canadian women’s national champion Anna Rice in straight sets at a national ranking event prior to the Olympic Games.
She also won the U.S. Open women’s singles title in 2009.
