Pan Am badminton serves off today

The 2018 Pan American Men’s and Women’s Continental Team Championships will serve off at the National Racquet Centre in Tacarigua at 9 am, today.

The opening ceremony will take place at 5.30 pm today and the tournament runs until Sunday. The final schedule of matches was confirmed last night at a management meeting.

It will be the first time in TT’s badminton history that a Pan Am event will be hosted here. The best men’s and women’s teams in the Pan Am region will compete to earn qualification for the 2018 Thomas and Uber Cup in Thailand in May.

Eight men’s and seven women’s teams will compete, with the winner in each category automatically qualifying for the Thomas and Uber Cup.

A 14-member TT team will compete in the tournament with both the men’s and women’s team fielding seven athletes.

The local men’s team will include Nicholas Bonkowsky, Nicholas Khillawan, Naim Mohammed, Rahul Rampersad, Anil Seepaul, Renaldo Sinanan and Justin Sui. The TT women’s team will comprise Avril Marcelle, Nekeisha Blake, Chequeda De Boulet, Jade Joseph, Kerian Quan Chee, Kamasha Robertson and Latoya Walrond.

Among the other countries competing in the tournament are Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Guatemala, Canada, Mexico, USA and Barbados.

The National Racquet Centre has been busy with badminton activity since yesterday. A Badminton World Federation technical officials course started yesterday and concludes today. A two-day coaching conference will be held on Monday and Tuesday. A High Performance Training Camp will be held from Monday until February 25 featuring local and foreign players.