Beach Badminton Introduced!

(From OBC)
Corinne Barnard
Secretary General
Badminton Oceania)

BEACH BADMINTON LAUNCHED AT BADMINTON OCEANIA AGM

Badminton Oceania launched a new initiative at the Badminton Oceania Annual General Meeting on the weekend in Auckland, New Zealand. Beach Badminton.

The Oceania region is known for its lack of indoor facilities especially in the Pacific Islands. An initiative of the Oceania region to take Badminton outdoors and play Badminton on the Beach or in the Backyard was launched on Saturday evening.

Opening the ‘Beach Badminton’ launch held at Mission Bay, Auckland were, Robin Bryant, Vice President of Badminton World Federation and Nigel Skelt, Oceania President. Both men were keen to have a go and join the coaches from Tuvalu, Fiji, Vanuatu for a game of Beach Badminton. Other attendees were Oceania Executive members, Warren Yee (Fiji), Pule Risale (Samoa), Geraldine Brown (Australia) and General Manager from Badminton NZ, Mike Kernaghan.

The same size court as the indoor game, Beach Badminton is played with the same height net but with only one court boundary marker.

Tony Mordaunt, Regional Development Manager for Badminton Oceania will be developing the game into the pacific islands and is ideal for countries like fiji, samoa, tahiti, tuvalu and vanuatu. The only shortfall is the development of the shuttlecock especially on windy days. Badminton Oceania has asked the BWF to investigate a heavier shuttle that could be used for outdoor badminton. We will eagerly await the outcome.