The Guyana Badminton Association (GBA) will kick-start what is expected to be a rigorous New Year filled with activities with the annual GUMDAC Open Doubles Tournament set for late January early February of 2019.
GBA head Gokarn Ramdhani confirmed recently that the event, which will entering in its sixth year come 2019, will be staged early in the year. The tournament, which is sponsored by Darrell Carpenay, the Managing Director of GUMDAC, has been a crucial part of the badminton players’ schedule as they usually open up the new year with the exciting event.
With Ramdhani stressing on the GBA’s plan to emphasise more on spreading the
sport throughout more schools in Guyana, thus nurturing a younger base of potential players for the future, the tournament will serve as ideal preparation for a packed 2019, which features numerous overseas events such as the Pan American Games.
Over the years, the competition has been good for earmarking in- and out-of-form players who coaches then are able to work and rectify problems from an early stage. The elite class players meanwhile continue to perform at the highest level regardless of time and get themselves adequately prepared for the more intense events on the calendar.
While the GBA has had a solid 2018, thanks to their juniors as well as the sibling duo of Priyanna and Narayan Ramdhani, who is currently on the road to the Olympics, an early competitive start to the new year is critical for athletes across all sports, especially coming off of the holiday season.
The 2018 event was a resounding success with a number of stars, including Priyanna, Ronald Chang Yuen, Carpenay and Jonathan Mangra emerging winners in the respective divisions.
Meanwhile, 2019’s tournament could see more players coming out while the senior players who are locally based will be eager to get themselves up and running as they prepare for an arduous 2019. (Clifton Ross)
