2010 was a historic year for Guyana’s Badminton says Ramdhani

Dec 22, 2010 Sports

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By Sean Devers
President of the Guyana Badminton Association (GBA) and National Coach Gokarn Ramdhani told Kaieteur Sport that 2010 has been a historic year for Guyana’s Badminton and feels all of his hard work with the sport locally is paying off.

“This is our most successful year ever, since for the first time we won a Pan American medal and our junior players dominated at the Caribbean level,” the 45-year-old Ramdhani proudly disclosed.
The East Bank Demerara resident, a former Guyana junior and senior player, has spent all of his adult life involved in Badminton from the time he first picked up a racquet at Queens College in 1980 and says the love for the sport keeps him going.
“I love Badminton and that’s why I am still involved at a National level. My two children are national junior players and my wife is the Secretary of the GBA, so Badminton is in our entire family. Playing a bit also gives me exercise but now most of my attention is focused on Coaching,” Ramdhani, who up to two years ago won the National Open title, explained.
Badminton is a minority sport in Guyana and does not create the type of interest like Cricket and Football plus the unavailability of proper Halls to use for Badminton courts outside of Georgetown has prevented the sport from being decentralized at a faster pace.
But the Pan American Bronze medal in the Dominican Republic in the under-11 division by Ramdhani’s 9-year-old daughter Priyanna who is the National under-11 and U-13 Champion, has been a big boost to the sport locally.
“She has been playing since she was 4 and is a quick learner. She will enter next year’s Pan Am tournament in July in Jamaica as a seeded player and she still has two years at this level. With the right focus and preparation she could give us a Gold Medal,” Ramdhani said.
The only Level 3 Badminton Coach in the country, Ramdhani is pleased with the progress and enthusiasm shown by the Junior players and said the emphasis was on developing the young brigade this year.
“We have about 50 juniors at my Club Yonnex, another 50 at the Marian’s Academy, about 22 at Bishops (High School) and maybe 15 at Saints (Stanislaus College). We started a programme at the Berbice High School but the lack of facilities is problem in the rural areas,” Ramdhani pointed out.

Ramdhani said while he is happy with the progress made by the juniors, he is disappointed that not more seniors are playing competitively.
“While I would like to think that I am still good enough, the fact that only 2 years ago I won the National Open title shows that we are not heading in the right direction at the senior level. When I was much younger we had players like Sean Barnwell, Peter Peroune, Billy Holder and Grandison Robinson who were all top players at the Caribbean level and Guyana dominated the region. Most of the players drop out once they finish the junior level now and the distractions are far more than in my time. It’s disappointing to see how hard players, who have just finished the junior level drink and party and show little commitment to the sport,” Ramdhani lamented.
He said players like Corrine Thomas, Amanda Lowe, Sharon Latchman Singh, Nichola Devers and Karen Sibs were among the good junior players who remained in the sport at the senior level in the 1980s. Ramdhani believes the University of Guyana schedule is also a reason for not more players playing seriously at the senior level.
“The funny thing is that the children have so much more opportunities now than we had but their focus is not there when they become adults. We partied also but we also trained hard and were proud to represent our country and do well. I understand this problem is not only a Badminton issue but one which is affecting many other sports in Guyana….its maybe a cultural thing among today’s youth,” Ramdhani opined.
Four local tournaments were run off for the year with the Woodpecker annual junior tournament the last staged just about a week ago and Ramdhani says the unavailability of the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall could be another reason why the seniors are not coming out.
“We basically use the concrete courts at QC but for the seniors, who have more weight, a proper wood floor is preferred to prevent injures to the ankles, shins and knees and I am hoping that next year we can go back to using the sports hall which has the right courts for the game,” Ramdhani said.
He said that a big blow to Guyana medal chances was their non-participation in this year’s South American games in Brazil. “I felt we could have won a few medals for sure but we had to opt out because of the end of term exams.
“In the past there was only under-19 level, now there is under-11 right up and our junior standard is very high. We are the under-11 and U-13 champions of the Caribbean in singles, doubles and mixed doubles and reached the quarter-finals in all of our games in the Pan Am games which had 16 teams participating,” Ramdhani added.
Ramdhani was the Chief-de-Mission for the cancelled Caribbean Games set for Trinidad last year and the South American games in Colombia this year and coaches voluntarily at Marian’s Academy in addition to working at Yonnex three days per week from 4-8 in the evenings.
Ramdhani disclosed that Nicholas Ali, Avian Rodrigues, Ajave Singh, Greer Jackson and the Ramdhani siblings (Priyanna & Narayan) are among the top junior players in the country.
The 2011 local Badminton season is expected to commence next month with the staging of the Open seniors and juniors competition and Ramdhani said he was hopeful that this tournament would be played at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.

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