Chandigarh Badminton Association to hold first-ever tournament for non-professional women

The Chandigarh Badminton Association (CBA) in collaboration with the UT Sports Department will organise the first-ever Women’s Badminton Meet, meant only for non-professional individuals living in the tricity.

The meet, which aims to be organised under the theme, ‘Fit India’, will be held during the second weekend of September. “In order to encourage the participation and popularity of the sport, the participants will be provided with racquets and shuttlecocks free-of-cost for participating in the championship,” said Vijayendra Kumar, president, CBA. The entry for this championship will be opened from the third week of August at various coaching centres.

“The CBA organises various state championships annually, hosts many national events, and had recently hosted the first-ever cash prize meet for north zone shuttlers. However, this (women’s) meet is for non-professionals…it’s one of its kind event, where instead of winning the medals, the focus will be on more participation to encourage women to adopt the sport to live healthy,” added Kumar, who himself is an avid shuttler and state winner of masters’ meet. Not only the winners, but every participant will be awarded. The UT Sports Department will provide venue assistance along with CBA’s technical assistance.

“This will be for the first time that we will be conducting such an event and perhaps the first sports association in Chandigarh to organise a meet for non-professionals. Being into sports, it’s our duty not to restrict our services only to sportspersons or professionals. But we have to think beyond and showcase to the world that a sport is not out of reach of non-professionals and they can also play to remain fit,” added Surinder Mahajan, senior vice-president (administration).

The championship will be organised in singles and doubles events, and will also host an exhibition match of women national shuttlers from the city. The UT Director, Sports, has agreed to conduct the championship. The event will be organised at the Centre of Excellence for Badminton, Sector 38 sports complex, confirmed Mahajan.

Interestingly, this year in January, the CBA (since its inspection) had for the first time appointed former badminton player from Chandigarh Geeta Aggarwal as the honorary secretary of the association. “We have many female players in our fraternity who have won accolades at national and international level. However, through this tournament we aim to promote those female individuals who have stayed out of the badminton court or were hesitant to even try it. Every participant of this event will be a winner of life. No entry fee or any kind of registration charges will be charged from the participants,” said Col Raj Parmar, CBA vice-president (technical and events).

Chandigarh