National badminton championship begins today in Chandigarh

Chandigarh, January 2

The Chandigarh Badminton Association (CBA) will host the Yonex Sunrise All India Junior U-19 Ranking Badminton Tournament from January 3 to 9 at the Centre of Excellence for Badminton, Sector 38 Sports Complex. Vijayendra Kumar, IAS, will be the chairman, whereas Priyank Bharti, IAS, will be the president of the organising committee for this tournament. The event will be conducted in association with the UT Sports Department.

As many as 1,200 players and officials from across the nation will participate in this seven-day national championship, claimed the organisers. Notably, this event will be a national ranking-cum- selection tournament for the forthcoming two international tournaments, scheduled to be held in Netherlands and Germany.

“Around 1,100 players have confirmed their entries and over 50 officials of the Badminton Association of India (BAI) will organise this event. Haryana Vidhan Sabha Speaker Gian Chand Gupta will inaugurate the event on January 3, while former international and chief coach of Indian national badminton team Pullela Gopichand will attend the closing ceremony on January 9,” said Surinder Mahajan, general secretary, CBA, and joint secretary, BAI. It will be for the second time after 2016 that Gopichand will be here to attend CBA’s national event.

Col Raj Parmar (retd), senior vice-president, CBA, added that the championship would also be attended by officials of the BAI. “The BAI has declared this tournament as one of the selection criteria for representing the country in the forthcoming two international badminton tournaments to be held in Netherlands and Germany. The BAI officials will be closely monitoring this event in Chandigarh and closely assessing players’ performances here,” said Parmar.

“Players will be informed about matches on time. To avoid any chaos inside complex only players and their coaches will be allowed to enter the premises,” Mahajan added. — TNS

Prize money Rs 4 lakh

The winners of the tournament will be awarded total prize money of Rs 4 lakh, along with trophies and certificates. Top ranking under-19 players of the nation will participate in the championship.