Budding Champions from 12 countries to showcase their best game
Tournament to take place from 13th to 18th September 2022 at The Divisional Sports Complex, Mankapur
Nagpur: After the stupendous success of the Sr. National Badminton Challenge in 2017, Nagpur is once again entrusted with the responsibility to host the International Badminton Challenge 2022. The challenge under the auspices of Badminton World Federation, Badminton Asia and Badminton Association of India, will be hosted by Maharashtra Badminton Association in Nagpur. The tournament is being brought to Nagpurians in association with Maha Metro.
560 Player entries (112 each event) have been received from 12 countries including India (347), Japan (6), Malaysia, Maldives (10), Uganda (4), Zambia(3), Zimbabwe(1), United States of America (2), Canada (1), Thailand (11), Sri Lanka (5) and UAE (1).
The events in the tournament will include Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, Women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles. The top seeded participants in the events are Kiran George (Rank 64) in Men’s Singles, Malvika Bansod (Rank 47) in Women’s Singles, M.R.Arjun and Dhruv Kapila (Rank 35) in Men’s Doubles, Ishaan Bhatnagar & Tanisha Crasto (Rank 41) in Mixed Doubles and Ashwini Bhat & Shikha Gautam (Rank 53) in Women’s Doubles.
The emerging stars of the Nagpur Badminton Malvika Bansod, Ritika Thakker, Ananya Durugkar, Hriday Deshmukh, Shruti Chokhandre, Ajinkya Patharkar, Simran Singhi, Akshan Shetty will be seen amongst others showcasing their game.
The officials from BWF including Sh Girish Natu from Pune, Badminton Asia, BAI and MBA will be present in Nagpur for the tournament.
The first ever International Challenge in Nagpur will commence on 13th September 2022 with the inauguration at the hands of Sh Girish Mahajan Hon’ble Minister for Rural Development, Medical Education, Sports and Youth Welfare, Maharashtra State in presence of Sh Shrikant Bhartiya, MLC and Mr Sanjay Mishra Secretary, BAI and it shall conclude on 18th Sept 2022 at the hands of Sh.Nitinji Gadkari in presence of Sh. Chandrashekhar Bawankule. We are also inviting all the MLAs and MLCs of Nagpur District to witness the event with us.
Mr Pullela Gopichand, Chief Coach will also be visiting the tournament. The invite to BAI president & Assam CM Shri Himanta Biswa Sharma and Dy CM Shri Devendra Fadnavis is awaiting confirmation.
The President, MBA, Sh Arun Lakhani shared, “We are delighted to host yet another Challenge of world standard in Nagpur. This is a great opportunity for our players to get an international exposure in their very own country. Those who had to miss the internationals earlier due to travel and financial constraints, will now be able to compete with the world talent to up their game and to gain international points to add to their ranking. We are looking forward to the similar historic response to this tournament from Nagpurians as we received for the SNBC 2017. The players in this tournament are going to be the faces of the sport of Badminton tomorrow. We are grateful to Maha Metro and Dr. Brajesh Dixit for their association with us in this special venture. I would like to extend my special thanks to Hon’ble Dy. CM Sh Devendra Fadnavis for getting the stadium refurbished by replacing the lights and mats on such a short notice. This support from him enabled us to take the international tournament here in Nagpur with the support of BAI President Sh Himanta Biswa Sarma. We have invited Sh Devendraji and are expecting him to grace the tournament with his presence for at least one of the 6 days.”
The MBA and NDBA have appealed to the sports lovers of Nagpur and specially the students to come and witness the best of the game on court in large numbers.
