Indian Ambassador opens BKS Badminton Tournament

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Indian Ambassador HE Piyush Srivastava yesterday inaugurated the BKS-Bahrain International Challenge 2021 Badminton Tournament at the Bahrain Keraleeya Samajam Diamond Jubilee Hall.

Bahrain Badminton and Squash Federation President Dr Sawsan Taqawi, BKS President P V Radhakrishna Pillai, BKS acting General Secretary Varghese George, Vice President Devadas Kunnath, Treasurer Manoj Surendran, Membership Secretary Sarath Nair, BKS Indoor Games Secretary Paulson Lonappan, Entertainment secretary Pradeep Patheri, Librarian Vinoop Kumar V and BKS-Bahrain International Challenge 2021 tournament director Prasobh Ramanathan attended the function.

BKS Bahrain International Challenge 2021 – Day 1 update

The qualification matches of the Bahrain International Challenge (BIC) 2021 began at the Bahrain Keraleeya Samajam Badminton Arena yesterday morning. 

For five days, the tournament will consist of five events, Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, Women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles.

The main draw is from today, and all matches up to the pre-quarterfinals will be complete.

All the quarterfinals match in all five categories will be complete by tomorrow.

All semifinals on Friday and finals in all disciplines will be held on Saturday.

The BIC is the highest category event that is held in Bahrain.

The tournament is sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) which carries world ranking points and a total prize pool of USD 15,000.

This year’s event has seen the biggest turnout in the tournament’s history of nearly 200 players from 25 countries. Players from Indonesia and India form the biggest contingents.

The event has become truly global with participation from European countries like Belarus, Malta and Belgium to Central Asian countries like Turkey and Azerbaijan.

This year the organisers are also having a small contingent from across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans with players from the US and Australia. The remaining players are from Russia, Indonesia, Egypt, Singapore, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Estonia, Maldives, Canada, Syria, Iraq, UAE, Pakistan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and South Africa.

The top seeds for the singles events are top 100 ranked players Sergey Sirant (Russia) and Aakarshi Kashyap (India) in Men’s and Women’s Singles, respectively. The doubles events will see top seeds from a range of countries including Sri Lanka, Belgium and Egypt. In Women’s Singles, a special mention for Bayrak Ozge (Turkey), a former champion, fan favourite and a regular fixture at these events.

Entry is free on all days as per COVID-19 protocol while the BKS welcomes all badminton enthusiasts in the Kingdom to support the event and witness high-quality badminton action.

For further details, contact Prasob Ramanathan on 3915 4113.