The Guyana Badminton Association (GBA) is eyeing qualification at the Pan Am Games set for Santiago Chile, later this year, and next year’s Olympic Games in France even as it continues to develop the sport locally.
This is according to secretary of the GBA Emily Ramdhani.
“We are hoping our national players Narayan Ramdhani and Priyanna Ramdhani can qualify for Olympics 2024,Ó said Ramdhani.
“However, to do this we will need to attend at least 6-7 international tournaments in the region and further afield in 2023. We’re hoping to solicit the help of our corporate sponsors, the National Sports Commission and the Guyana Olympic Association,”she added.
The GBA recently announced its plans for 2023 which included participating in a number of international tournaments and staging its biennial general meeting.
“Our plans for 2023 are to continue to grow the sport of badminton in Guyana.
“Our first order of business will be our biennial general meeting thereafter we will continue the Badminton Nursery Academy, maybe take it to a few other locations maybe Bishops’, St. Rose’s etc., maybe even Berbice, Linden, Essequibo as we find it’s easier for us to go to interested persons rather than them coming to us.”
For this year Ramdhani also said that the GBA plans to distribute racquets, shuttlecocks and nets to schools.
“Hopefully in the outlying regions where we think that the outdoor aspect of the game `Air Badminton’ will be more readily accessible. The shuttles for this aspect of the game was modified for playing outdoor and for the wind factor. These donations will be made possible through our international affiliations Badminton PanAm and the Badminton World Federation,” she disclosed.
Ramdhani said the association will also continue to work with their senior players ahead of this year’s Pan Am Games.
“By April 2023, we should be aware of the players who will qualify for the PanAm Games in Santiago, Chile in October 2023,” she declared.
Looking back at last year Ramdhani said that in her opinion the GBA had a successful year.
“I would say for the year 2022 the Guyana Badminton Association had a successful year. The year started off with the launch of the Badminton Nursery Academy on January 03, and resumed at Queen’s College after refurbishment of the Badminton Courts in the Auditorium.
“In March, Narayan Ramdhani and Priyanna Ramdhani had a very successful year on the Collegiate Circuit with Narayan placing first in the Provincial men’s singles championship and Priyanna placing third in women’s singles.”
The two players also participated in the Canadian Collegiate Athletics Association (Nationals) where Narayan placed fourth in singles and Priyanna third in doubles.
Narayan Ramdhani duly won the coveted All Canadian Award for 2022 and was also the winner of the Athlete of the Year and All Conference Awards.
International tournaments
“We were represented at five international tournaments beginning in April. Narayan Ramdhani, Priyanna Ramdhani, Akili Haynes and Tyrese Jeffrey participated in the PanAm individual Championships in El Salvador where Narayan and Priyanna Ramdhani reached the quarter finals.
ÒIn May, at the South American Youth Games in Argentina, Guyana was represented by Matthew Beharry while at the Commonwealth Games in July in Birmingham, England, the representatives were Narayan and Priyanna Ramdhani who had qualified to participate.
ÒAt the South American Games in Paraguay, in October, Guyana was represented by Narayan, Priyanna and Akili Haynes all of whom had qualified for the games.
ÒAt the El Salvador International, Priyanna Ramdhani was given a Gender Equity travel Grant by Badminton PanAm to participate,Ó the secretary disclosed.
ÒIn March, the GBA visited the community of St. CuthbertÕs Mission to promote Air Badminton.
ÒWe also donated equipment for the community to continue playing the sport,Ó she added.
The GBA also held a number of local tournaments which were local Tournaments were:
1. The GUMDAC AB&C Division Tournament in April
2. The GBA inaugural tournament to commemorate World Badminton Day, which is celebrated worldwide on July 5.
3. The GBA National Junior Tournament in October, 2022 where students from the Nursery Badminton Academy participated as well as a few players from Berbice.
The other local tournament held which can also be considered an international tournament was the Inter-Guiana Games in November.
ÒWe were scheduled to have another local tournament, the Gokarn Ramdhani Classic, a Memorial tournament to honour our late president. This was a brainchild of our Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Charles Ramson Jnr.
However, due to the refurbishment of the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall and clashes with other sport disciplines we were unable to have this tournament but we are looking forward to having it done bigger and better in 2023.
ÒWe are very happy with the progress of having the Sports Hall completed which was long overdue. I would say for 2022 the major accomplishment which was made possible through the Hon. Minister of Sports Mr. Charles Ramson Jnr., The National Sports Commission and the Government of Guyana was finally, a home for badminton. We are truly grateful and extremely excited over this huge accomplishment. Hats off to the stakeholders.
Once again we look forward to having our own home, this dream should be realized by the end of 2023.”
