Sport
‘People are coming from all over Victoria’: Veteran badminton championships shape up for return
More than 350 passionate badminton talents will descend on Shepparton with the Shepparton Badminton Association hosting the Veteran Team Championships, starting on Saturday, February 11.
Set to be held across the Saturday and Sunday, the event will have 46 teams of eight players battle it out, with Shepparton Sports Stadium and Visy Centre expected to be utilised to capacity.
Excited about the return of the event, tournament director John Pettigrew said the strong number of entries was up on last year.
“People are coming from all over Victoria, Gippsland, Albury, Swan Hill, Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo and there’s a lot of teams coming out of Melbourne,” Pettigrew said.
“It’s the first one for the year in the Victorian circuit and we’ve got record entries, there will be 46 teams of eight, with four men and four women in each team — and for the first time in many years we’ve also got a team out of Canberra.”
Open to participants over the age of 35, the graded nature of the tournament allows people of all standards and abilities to match up with those of a similar skill level.
Having organised the tournament for more than five years, Pettigrew said he was now accustomed to what was required for things to run smoothly.
“It runs fairly well and it’s constant, we start at 9am and run through until 6pm on the Saturday and from about 10am through to 3pm on the Sunday,” he said.
“These people make a social weekend of it, there’s about six of these tournaments held over the year in Bendigo, Ballarat, Swan Hill, Albury-Wodonga and in Melbourne.”
With former national and Olympic representatives part of a quality field, this year’s championships are not to be missed.
“The public is most welcome to drop in and just wander around and have a look,” Pettigrew said.
“Tournaments such as this highlight the value of sports tourism to the region and the work of local volunteer sporting organisations.”