2019 badminton tournament slated to start from February 28 to March 2.
Already participants from 19 nations have confirmed participation in a tournament that will be held at Mpesa Foundation Academy in Mangu,Thika.
The countries are USA, England, Switzerland, India, Azerbaijan, Mongolia, Luxembourg, Jordan, Iran, Myanmar, Malta, Zambia, Egypt, Mozambique, Cameroon, Ghana, Uganda and Mauritius.
Speaking ahead of the event to Standard, World Badminton Federation contact for Kenya Jeff Shigoli said the tournament expects to attract a good following worldwide.
“The event being part of the 2020 Olympic qualification sanctioned tournament and the sport in general enjoys a good following worldwide.We hope to attract good media coverage both in print, electronic and social media,” said Shigoli.
He added: “This tournament presents badminton Kenya a great opportunity to benchmark our local talent as we aspire to continuously improve the quality of this sport locally.”
Last year between April 4 to 15, Kenya was represented by Mercy Joseph and Victor Odera in the commonwealth games that were held in Australia.
The Kenyan tournament comes after recent Uganda International tournament, which was held between February 22 to 25 where Kenya.
Shigoli said Kenya is banking on players led by senior players Joseph Githitu, Abner Barongo, Nickson Kiprotich, Nirav Shah, Janet Wanjiku and our Juniors Meer Solanki, Shadrack and Theertha Vanmreddy to do a good job.
Shigoli said there will be no awards but the tournament will earn world ranking points and that the tournament is open to everyone and not specific players.
