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Fantastic fare has been lined up for badminton lovers in the kingdom with a number of international shuttlers playing for glory, as well as rankings and prize money, in two back-to-back tournaments at the Shaikh Khalifa Sports City in Isa Town.
More than 90 players from 19 countries in Europe, South East Asia, Africa, the Indian Sub- continent, the Middle East, Canada and hosts Bahrain will be seen in action in the Victor-Rayyan Sports Bahrain International Series 2015, while the Bahrain International Challenge 2015 will see more than double that number of players from 35 nations, including the United States, participating.
Both events are sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) and Badminton Asia Confederation (BAC) and conducted by the Bahrain Badminton and Squash Federation (BBSF) with competition in five categories – men’s and women’s singles and doubles and mixed doubles.
According to the BAC website, Vietnam’s Tien Minh Nguyen, ranked 35 in the world, is the leading men’s player in the International Challenge, followed by India’s RMV Gurasaidutt, ranked 42nd, while in the women’s singles, Spain’s Beatriz Corrales, ranked 25, is the top-ranked player, followed by Germany’s Karin Schnaase, at 29. Gurusaidutt, who played in the The Indian Club Centenary Cup Li-Ning Bahrain International Challenge last year, has improved by two spots this year.
BBSF secretary-general Hisham Al Abbasi said: “The staging of such high-quality tournaments with so many top-class players is a great stimulus for the continued development and stature of badminton in Bahrain and the federation is happy to organise such large-scale events.”
The Bahrain challenge will be led by star player Jaffer Ebrahim partnering Heri Setiawan in the men’s doubles in both events. The 28-year-old Indonesian Setiawan, who has been recruited by the BBSF to coach the national team, will be involved in three categories in the International Series and two in the International Challenge. Apart from his playing responsibilities, Jaffer is also the BWF Dubai badminton development manager.
These events come under the umbrella of the Bahrain Badminton Festival, which began on September 26 with a Shuttle Time – a BWF programme to promote the sport around the world – tutors course aimed to create awareness of the sport among Bahrainis. The course had a good response with 25 participants, while 27 participants turned up for a second course held on October 3.
Total prize money of $5,000 for the International Series, to be held from October 28 to November 1, is up for grabs and $15,000 can be won in the International Challenge, which will be held from November 3-7. Trophies and medals will be awarded to the winners and runners-up in all five categories.
Winners of the men’s and women’s singles in the International Series will take away $375 while the winners in the three doubles categories will take away $395 per pair and in the International Challenge the singles champions will each get $1,125 with the doubles champions in each category walking away with $1,185 per pair. All players getting into the last 16 in each tournament will receive prize money.
A source close to the organising committee said: “The huge number of participants in the two tournaments is because of the precious ranking points at stake, which will help players qualify for the Olympics.”
Hosts Bahrain have the most number of participants in the events with 36 in the first and 37 in the second tournament. They are followed by India with 17 and 36, respectively.
As part of the festival, the BAC Umpires Course-West Asia will run concurrently from October 30 to November 8 with 12 participants conducted by three conductors and assessors.
Anil Singh of India will be the referee for the International Challenge and his deputy will be Bahrain’s Ashley George, who will also be the deputy to Tomoharu Sano of Japan for the International Series. Ricson Rebello is the tournament director for the earlier event, while Adnan Al Mahmood will be manning the post in the latter event.
The official accommodation for the players is the Mashtan Hotel in Manama.
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AN 11-strong BBSF team covered itself in glory winning the overall team title; the Level 2 men’s doubles title and both the singles and doubles titles in the Boys’ U17 category at the 2nd IBAK-KBF GCC Invitational Tournament in Kuwait recently.
Ten teams were in the fray for the team competition – three from Kuwait, two each from Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar, plus Bahrain – with more than 200 players from the GCC and India taking part.
The Bahrain squad comprised of Ricson Rebello (captain), Heri Setiawan, Suneet Sebastian, James Varghese, Vishnu Sreekumar, Rohit Jayakumar, Adnan Ehsan, Elyas Ehsan, Jayakumar P and Jayashree Nair; Jayakumar Raveendran (team manager).
“This was a great performance by the Bahrain Federation squad against some world class players, particularly the Indian stars. Well done to the team members!” said Al Abbasi.
