T&T badminton players returned home with eight medals, including a gold, one silver, and six bronze medals, at the recent BGA Junior Internacional de Badminton 2026/Bucaramanga Junior International held in Bucaramanga, Colombia, from September 1-6.
The quartet of Liam Rajkumar, Asia-Lee Waller, Kayleigh Rajkumar, and Isabelle Waller outdid themselves at a tournament that comprised the host, Colombia; two South American nations in Peru and Venezuela; and the twin-island Republic.
The pair of Rajkumar and Asia-Lee Waller secured the country’s lone gold medal when they defeated the home team’s duo of Cristobal Ossa Rodriguez and Dulce Maria Uribe Guarin in the final of the mixed doubles.
Playing in the den of their counterparts, the T&T pair faced an expected uphill task but never allowed it to get to them.
In fact, a 27-25 triumph in the first set set them up for the title early, with the advantage easing the nerves. An expected fightback faced the duo in red, white, and black in the second set, but they instead rose to the challenge and held off their counterparts 21-14 for the gold medal.
The top-seeded Waller had only moments earlier missed out on the gold medal in the Under-15 girls’ doubles finals, where she paired with Colombia’s Lucia Barrios Fernandez for the title match against the hometown heroines Antonia Giraldo Morales and Uribe Guarin. However, fortune did not follow her, as the Colombians prevailed in straight sets, 22-20 and 21-15, for the chance to lift the crown, while the Waller-Fernandez combination settled for the silver medal.
It was the second piece of silverware for Waller and the lone silver for team T&T at the tournament.
The Rajkumar siblings were among the bronze-medal winners for T&T. Together for the mixed doubles under-17 semifinals, they went down to the superior pair of number one seed Sebastian Zapata Tamayo of Colombia and his compatriot Elizabeth Sofia Agudelo Arroyave in two sets, 21-8, 21-4.
In the girls’ under-19 singles, Rajkumar (Kaleigh) was swept aside by Colombian Barbara De Los Angeles Lamas Coronel in the semis, 21-4, 21-7, for her bronze medal. Rajkumjar (Kaleigh) later paired with Molina Pinillos Nicolas for the mixed doubles under-19 semis but lost a second time as they were defeated by the Colombian duo of Juan Pablo Agudelo and Valentina Leal 21-17, 17-21, 21-19.
Rajkumar (Kayleigh) also lost out in the under-19 girls’ doubles. Her combination with Valentina Leal proved insufficient to get past the team of Barbara De Los Angeles Lamas Coronel and her namesake Barbara Valentina Saez Berroeta, 4-21, 7-21.
Her brother Liam had an unsuccessful attempt in the boys’ under-15 doubles semifinals when he and Ivan Gabriel Pinzon Benavidez were beaten twice by the combination of Juan Cristobal Zapata and Juan David Santa Cardona, 21-8, 21-9.
Liam had a decent run in the boys’ under-15 singles until his end came in the round of four, where he faced Gomez Echeverri Ruban Dario of Colombia and went down 21-15, 16-21, and 21-17.
