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Jamaica to host PanAm Badminton Champs

Published:Sunday | November 27, 2022 | 12:14 AMJob Nelson - Sports Coordinator
Jamaica’s Tahlia Richardson competes against Zambia’s Elizabeth Chipeleme during the women’s singles badminton match at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, back in July.
AP
Jamaica’s Tahlia Richardson competes against Zambia’s Elizabeth Chipeleme during the women’s singles badminton match at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, back in July.

JAMAICA’s SUCCESSFUL bid last month means the country is now set to host the Yonex Pan American (PanAm) Badminton Championships, which will take place at G.C. Foster College in April of 2023.

According to the president of the Jamaica Badminton Association (JBA), Wayne Townsend, his organisation opted to stage the higher-graded PanAm Champs instead of the annual Jamaica International Badminton Tournament, which is usually held between February and March.

“What is particularly interesting about this tournament. that urged us to bid for it, it is coming into a period where the thinking at that time was that we are looking at Olympic qualifiers, which will definitely attract a lot of international athletes to the shores to participate.

“It is also a tournament that we get to qualify for the PanAm Championship the following year so they can get qualification points there,” Townsend said in an interview with The Sunday Gleaner.

Townsend and other members of the JBA’s Local Organising Committee (LOC) toured G.C. Foster College recently to identify areas to transform the facility to meet the criteria set to stage the Yonex PanAm Champs by Badminton Pan American Confederation (BPAC), the regional badminton body.

“So what we did was look at the facility itself, look at what is available to us for this kind of tournament, of this magnitude, and we definitely will be looking at transforming, through the partnership with G.C. Foster, the facility to make it international ready.

REQUIREMENTS LIST

“We have an entire list that we were given the requirements that we need to fulfil and ensure that the facilities are prepared to host this kind of tournament,” Townsend said.

According to Townsend, during the walkthrough, rooms were scrutinised for physiotherapy, medical and live streaming, which are important components for the JBA to host the tournament. He singled out live streaming, with a room to be retrofitted to show the entire tournament to the world.

A regional team is expected in Jamaica on December 7 and will also tour G.C. Foster.

“That meeting (December 7) is to allow the regional body to have a better understanding and appreciation of the facility because, in the bidding process, we had to give all the specifics about the facility. That will be a high-level meeting to look at what the facility is, what else we need to do to prepare for that April deadline to host the tournament,” Townsend said.