Source: www.newsday.co.tt
By: Jonathan Ramnanansingh
President of the Trinidad and Tobago Badminton Association (TTBA), Reno Singh revealed that the national team is currently under-going final preparations for the forthcoming Junior Pan American Championships, Jamaica, which serves off from July 24-31.
“The squad leaves on Thursday (today) and I can safely say that they’ve been training thoroughly over the past few weeks.
“Since last Friday, after the close of the National Badminton camp, the six-member team has been at the Chaguanas Regional Indoor Sporting Arena everyday conducting training sessions,” stated Singh.
He added that the players were in a positive mind-set and were looking forward to participating in this year’s Championships.
They intend to give a good performance and further raise the awareness of badminton in this country. “So far the players are very upbeat and excited about the Pan Am. They are eager to represent Trinidad and Tobago on the international stage,” mentioned Singh.
The TTBA president explained that the team has been putting a lot of focus on playing as a unit.
He wanted them to have a better understanding of each other so they would play smoothly, especially in the mixed doubles division.
“The team has been building on their tactical and strategical on-court play.
“We want to get them bonding as a team so moves can be predicted by team partners to gain an advantage,” he continued. The TT team at the Junior Pan Am will be represented by current Girls Under-19 Singles and Doubles champion, Kristi Reno-Singh; current Boys Under-19 Singles and Doubles champion Matthaus Wilford; Jason Ramjass, Zuwena James, Reba Fleary and T’Chad Baptiste. They will compete for precious metal in both team and individual events. Kristi and Ramjass will contest the Under-17 categories while Wilford, James, Fleary and Baptiste go after Under-19 honours.
This same team would also be representing TT in the Caribbean Regional Badminton Confederation (CAREBACO) at St Michael, Barbados, from August 31 - September 3.
Singh revealed that he would have preferred the CAREBACO tournament before the Junior Pan Am. He explained that the Pan Am is the higher ranked tournament and he would have liked for the players to gain some competitive experience at the CAREBACO before the Pan Am.
“We have our bigger tournament first. We would have preferred to compete in CAREBACO first as a trial but it wasn’t so this year.
“We still are going in confident and we always play to win, so we’re not too bothered,” added the TTBA president.
Joining the team in Jamaica would be coach Anil Seepaul and manager, Reno Singh.