Kathmandu, January 14

Kathmandu District Badminton Association and Himalayan Badminton Club are jointly organising the School Badminton Championship from February 20-22 at the National Sports Council covered hall.

More than 200 players from across the country are expected to take part in the championship, informed the organisers at a press meet today. The championship features four categories — sub-junior U-12 and U-14 boys and girls singles.

“This is not just a tournament as we have also planned a talent hunt from this event,” said Deepak Thapa, President of KDBA. “The talented players will get scholarships and we will provide them with regular training for one year,” he said. He also said a maximum of eight players would be sent to India for training. “Babu Banarasi Das Academy, one of the best institutes in India, has assured us of providing scholarships for the talented players,” he said. “We will coordinate with parents of the selected players as we have three schemes of scholarships — three-month, six-month and one year.”

Vidhya Sanskar School’s Sports Club is the major partner of the championship, while Nepal Badminton Association, National Sports Council and Nepal Olympic Committee are the supporters. “The main objective of the championship is to promote badminton from grassroots and help in professionalism of the sport,” said Shivani Thapa, Member of KDBA.

General Secretary of Nepal Badminton Association Ramji Bahadur Shrestha said such tournaments would help in making the base strong. “There are lots of talents in schools and most of the current national team players are from school-level tournaments,” he said, thanking KDBA and HBC for the championship. “We have also planned to instruct our district bodies to organise three-four tournaments in a year in our bid to bring out new talents.”

Girendra Man Singh, General Secretary of Himalayan badminton Club said the youth tournament was their dream project. “We were not able to do it because of various reason and we decided to coordinate with KDBA when they approached us for this event,” he said. “We have planned to give continuity to this tournament.” Rajesh Adhikari, Director of Vidhya Sanskar School said he was proud to have got the opportunity to be associated with KDBA. “This is an event in which our Sports Club and Student Department will be involved with KDBA. That will not only help the sport but also give the students a chance to know the organisational and leadership skills,” he said. “We are with KDBA and hope the championship will be a grand success.”