Badminton players arrive for Olympic qualifiers

Olympian Kevin Cordon from Guatemala answers a question from a reporter before practicing at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.(CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

Badminton players from around the world arrived on Saipan over the weekend in time for the two 2024 Paris Olympic Games qualifying tournaments that the Northern Marianas Badminton Association will be hosting at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium starting tomorrow, June 6.

Four-time Olympian Kevin Cordon of Guatemala led the more than 50 athletes and officials that arrived on Saipan from Friday to Sunday and were joined by delegations from Singapore, South Korea, Finland, Poland, Chinese-Taipei, Vietnam, Belgium, and the United States. They will play first in the Crowne Plaza Northern Marianas Open 2023 that will run from June 6 to 11 and they compete in the TakeCare Saipan International from June 13 to 18.

“I am excited to play, this is my second time in this region, having played in New Zealand before. The weather is nice, I was expecting it’s very hot, but it’s not. The venue is also better than I expected. Before coming here, I competed in Mexico and the conditions and playing venue were tough,” said Cordon, who made headlines for making it to the semifinals of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games held last year.

The tournament’s top seed in the men’s singles said he is looking forward to a great tournament and a tough competition, as he knows there are a lot of Asian players coming in and they are known to be tough competitors.

One of Cordon’s rivals is fellow Olympian Son Wan Ho, who arrived Sunday early morning with 12 other South Koreans. Another player to watch  is Jeon Hyeok, who was part of the Korean crew that finished runner-up in the TOTAL BWF World Mixed Team Championships. Chinese-Taipei joins the mix and had its first batch out of the 63 athletes coming in also yesterday morning, including women’s No. 1 seed Sung Shuo Yun.  Singapore brought a young team, while Finland, Vietnam, and Poland also have young players.

Singaporean players hold their practice session after arriving early Sunday morning. The visiting players will be competing in two 2024 Paris Olympic qualifying tournaments—the Northern Marianas Open and the Saipan International.(CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

“Our players competing here are in the 19-24 age group. They’ve been to many tournaments in Asia, but this is their first time to compete in an Olympic qualifier and this is a good experience for them,” said Peksiah Lim, one of the coaches of Singapore.

Meanwhile, the bulk of the participants in the Olympic qualifier double-header were scheduled to arrive early this morning. The more than 100 players and officials are from Japan, Chinese-Taipei, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, India, Malaysia, and Thailand.

“A warm welcome to our visiting players and guests representing five continents. This is the first time that we are hosting an Olympic qualifier in badminton and we are pleased that we were able to have a lot of participants. We look forward to watching many exciting games, as we really have a very competitive field,” NMBA president Merlie Tolentino said.

Opening matches in the Northern Marianas Open will start on Tuesday at 3pm and run until 9pm.

Day 2 (June 7) games will be from 10am to 9pm; Day 3 (June 8) is from 12nn to 9pm; and Day 4 (June 9) is from 1pm to 9pm. Semis matches on June 10 will be from 1pm to 9pm, while finals in the men’s and women’s singles and men’s, women’s, and mixed doubles are slated for Sunday, June 11, from 12pm to 5pm. The same schedule will be in effect for the Saipan International 2023. (PR)