Badminton Year in review

Jan 04, 2023 Sports

Kaieteur News – “I would say for the year 2022 the Guyana Badminton Association had a successful year,” noted Association head Emily Ramdhani in a report to the media. The report as follows, informed on the activities during the past year.

The year started off with the launch of the Badminton Nursery Academy on January 03, 2022 and resumed at the Queens College after refurbishment of the Badminton Courts in the Auditorium.
In March 2022, Narayan Ramdhani and Priyanna Ramdhani had a very successful year on the

Collegiate Circuit when Narayan got 1st in the Provincial Men’s Singles Championship and Priyanna got 3rd in Women’s Singles. They then went on to the Canadian Collegiate Athletics Association (Nationals) where Narayan got 4th in singles and Priyanna got 3rd in Doubles. Narayan Ramdhani won the coveted All Canadian Award 2022 and also the Athlete of the Year and All Conference Award.

We were represented at 5 international tournaments beginning in April, where Narayan Ramdhani, Priyanna Ramdhani, Akili Haynes and Tyrese Jeffrey participated in the Panam Individual Championship in El Salvador where Narayan and Priyanna Ramdhani got to the quarter finals.
The Guyana Badminton team – (from left) Narayan, Emily and Priyanna Ramdhani at the Commonwealth Games. (Rawle Toney photo)
In May, South American Youth Games in Argentina represented by Matthew Beharry.
Commonwealth Games in July in Birmingham, England. We were represented by Narayan & Priyanna Ramdhani who qualified to participate.
South American Games in Paraguay October, 3 persons were qualified Narayan, Priyanna and Akili Haynes.
El Salvador International where Priyanna Ramdhani was given a Gender Equity travel Grant by Badminton Panam to participate in December.

In March 2022, the GBA visited the community of St. Cuthbert’s Mission and promoted

AirBadminton, we also donated equipment for the community to continue playing the sport.

The local Tournaments were:

GUMDAC AB&C Division Tournament in April
The GBA held a tournament to commemorate World Badminton Day, which is celebrated

Worldwide on July 5 this was the inaugural year.

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 we had which can also be considered an international tournament was the Inter-Guiana Games in November. Suriname got the better of us but we had a young team compared to them. A team we will continue to work with. Again, 3 persons were from the

Badminton Academy, two from Berbice and the others from Yonex Badminton Club.

We were schedule to have another local tournament and for the first time the Gokarn Ramdhani Classic, a memorial tournament to honour our late President. This was a brainchild of our Hon. Minister, Mr. Charles Ramson. However, due to the refurbishment of the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall and clashes with other sport discipline we were unable to have this tournament but we are looking forward to having it done bigger and better in 2023.

We 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, 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.

Plans for 2023

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. Roses 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 2023 the Association plans on distributing Racquets, Shuttlecocks and Nets to schools. Hopefully in the outlying regions where we think that the outdoor aspect of the Game “AirBadminton” will be more readily accessible. The shuttles for this aspect of the game will be 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.
We will also continue to work with our senior players as Panam Games and Olympics 2024 are soon approaching. We are hoping our national players Narayan Ramdhani and Priyanna Ramdhani can qualify for Olympics 2024. 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.
By April 2023 we should be aware of the players who will qualify for the Panam Games in Santiago, Chile in October 2023.
Once again we look forward to having our own home this dream should be realized by the end of 2023.

Can’t wait.