Narwal eyes perfection as high school badminton career comes to an end

Ranya Narwal is on undefeated watch this weekend.

The Grade 12 student from Fort Richmond Collegiate hasn’t lost a competitive badminton match in high school and has every intention of ending it that way as she chases a third consecutive provincial championship at Prairie Badminton in St. Boniface.

The high school championships start Thursday and wrap up Saturday.

Narwal won the junior varsity girls crown in Grade 10 and captured the varsity title last year. She’s gone a combined 22-0 in provincial tournaments.

“It’s been crazy,” Narwal said, earlier this week. “I never thought that I would be so invested in badminton.

“I’ve put a lot into this sport. I’m on the court five to six times per week, I do off-court exercises at home — looking back now, I think I’ve had some great progress.”

Narwal took up badminton six years ago in India. A year later, her family moved to Winnipeg and she continued to play casually.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, however, and that’s exactly what happened once she was unable to play during the pandemic.

“I just realized how much I missed badminton and how much I really wanted to be on court training,” Narwal said. “It was a blessing in disguise, that phase of time. I bought a net, I was playing outside, I was doing anything and everything to get in that zone and just play.”

Now Narwal — the province’s top-ranked U19 female player in singles, doubles and mixed doubles, and No. 2 female singles player overall — might be the most decorated high school player in the province. Last month, she won the Manitoba Badminton Association’s junior provincial triple-crown for the second year in a row, taking home gold in singles, doubles and mixed doubles.

She’s already making noise on the senior scene, winning the mixed-doubles title in the senior provincial championship earlier this month.

Dale Kinley has coached Narwal for the last five years at Prairie Badminton. Her dominance is hardly a surprise, he said. She simply outworks her opposition.

“She works very hard. She trains very often,” Kinley said. “She does a lot of off-court stuff as well just to push her badminton to the next level for herself.

“Very self-motivated, as well.”

Narwal will attend the University of British Columbia this fall to pursue a degree in computer science. She’ll continue training on the court while attending UBC but admitted she is uncertain of her future in badminton beyond the Canada Games in 2027.

She’s entertained the idea of taking a crack at another sport.

Whatever Narwal decides, she has the work ethic to be a special player, Kinley said. All she needs is match experience at the highest levels.

“Getting some more maturity, more so in her game, like the experience,” he said. “She’s playing very well, just playing at the next level above that, she could do very well.”

Narwal hopes to continue her dominance over the local high school scene first, and she’s primed to do it. She won last year’s provincial tournament while nursing a back injury. She has worked on improving her back strength since then and said she is healthy entering play this week.

“My school has a great history of badminton and I just want to keep that streak going,” Narwal said.

“I want to motivate and inspire the other kids in my school. Badminton is an emerging sport, I saw more than 100 kids try out for my school team which is crazy. I think a lot of people are finding interest in the sport and I hope to inspire them to play.”

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca

X: @jfreysam