The first ever International tournament for wheelchair badminton players, the Czech Para-Badminton Open 2018, took place on May 5th 2018, which gathered 17 wheelchair players from Austria, Poland and the Czech Republic. Notwithstanding the pending approval from the Badminton World Federation and Badminton Europe, the event was organised by the club Badminton Sharks Brno and the Czech Badminton Federation. This revolutionary International Para Badminton news of 2018 is certainly the talk of town in bohemian scape.
Training at the club, the home team consisted of three juniors and three adults, besides the debut players. Interestingly, all the debut players are skilled in other multiple games; Zuzana Přibilová and Bohuslav Dvořák, floorball players, Jiří Vrba, an active sportsman specializing on wheelchair basketball, and Zdeněk Krupička, one of the best Czech sledge ice hockey players who competed at the Paralympic Games in Pyeongchang earlier this year.
Perceiving the comfortness in wheelchair, the players opted for badminton despite being foreign to the game. While, the international players were Henriette Koósz from Austria and Jakub Sikorski Codi from Poland, the common goal to share the spirit of game united them together.
The organizers, as well, allowed seniors to play against the juniors, so that the budding players would get inspired and develop the skills.
Tomáš Voves, one of the organisers and the para-badminton coach at Badminton Sharks Brno, said, “In singles we saw some really hard battles. In the junior category, the level of play was naturally lower but their focus and enthusiasm looked outstanding.”
The Japanese Embassy member at the Czech Republic, Mr. Toru Furugori was invited to present the medals, who wished players the bright future in the sport.
Tomáš already ponders over the next tournament, as the players expressed interest in the Czech Para-Badminton Open 2019.
“The tournament in Rousinov was very friendly organized. We had exciting games and a lot of fun at this event. It was nice to see so many kids playing badminton and I hope that everyone will continue practicing and go to the tournaments soon,”
commented Henriett Koósz, winner of women’s singles, doubles and mixed doubles.
“Czech Para-Badminton Open was a great tournament. For me it was big opportunity to meet other wheelchair players and to play with them because in Poland besides youngsters who start playing, there aren’t enough wheelchair players to spar with. It was also great opportunity to meet old friends. The tournament was very well organized and there was great atmosphere. I hope in the future our Czech friends will keep on organizing such tournaments and I am sure year by year there will be more and more competitors from all around Europe and maybe even all around the world,”
added Jakub Sikorski Codi.
Badminton Sharks Brno started with para-badminton trainings in 2015. And proceeded with organizing various training camps, tournaments, and other activities that help promoting the sport in the Czech Republic.
Coaches from the club took part in the annual BEC Para-Badminton Event, organised by Badminton Europe in Belfast last year and visited the Japanese National Centre in Tokyo as well to improve their coaching skills.
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