TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS, FOR CHAMPIONS
- Aggie Manalac
I held my first badminton racket at the ripe, old age of 36, not even knowing how to execute a winning serve, much less hit a decent lob. It was the time when badminton was in its infancy in the country, when my friends and I hardly had any choices for courts to go to. It was the time when today’s current badminton icons Kennie and Kennevic Asuncion were both still in college and representing UP Diliman in the UAAP, as were the rest who we look up to today. My friends and I would troop to the Rizal Coliseum to watch the UAAP games and be so in awe of the varsity team players – who could be better? Our admiration simply increased twofold when many of these players soon became national team players – they were gods of the sport that we learned to love and have become addicted to.
This, until we witnessed international players in action: Indonesians, Koreans, Chinese, and even Malaysians. Our local gods were good but still had quite a lot of catching up to do in the international scene.
Like most aficionados, my friends and I started asking veterans and reading up on the sport to learn that the badminton gods of Asia breathe and eat nothing but badminton with grueling days of cross-training, sparring, shadow training, weight training, running, etc --- often without seeing families for months on end as they’d be practically sequestered in training camps.
And like any other sport, excelling in badminton requires exposure to as many high-caliber tournaments as physically possible, both locally and internationally.
Sadly, our local players currently have very little opportunity to stretch themselves to their limits in tournaments where they can compete against the best and against those who have trained even harder and whose prowess are benchmarked above their own capabilities. While government support for our players’ participation in international tournaments remain wanting, local tournaments likewise provide little in terms of tough competition. Few offer our youngest of players their early first exposure to competition. Moreover, most mainstream tournaments limit participants to non-varsity and non-current/ex-National team players for the sake of fair play and even keel. Where are they to go?
The Yonex-Sunrise Philippines National Open Badminton Championships (YSPNOBC) is a venue for badminton players to stretch themselves beyond what their daily games demand and potentially compete against fellow athletes they have never encountered before. Running for 5 years now, it is a much awaited annual event that many prepare and train extra for because they are challenged to fight their way in consecutive rounds of play, to inch their way towards the top of the ladder alongside top-caliber players. It is a tournament that does not pre-classify participants according to levels of skill, pushing players to simply play their best against the best. It is a tournament that separates the boys from men, the mediocre from the serious, those who simply want to win from those who are hungrier and want to win even more.
That the tournament has been staged for 5 years in a row is testament to its mission and dedication to bring forth new and bright, young stars of the sport – future Olympians -- as they hone their skills in a top-class competition. It continues to attract players from different regions in the country so that many of the new champions from
The tournament’s partnership with Yonex (the world leader in Badminton) guarantees players a tournament that is nothing short of being world-class: from the venue, officiating and the materials used (e.g. shuttlecocks). While it may not enjoy participation from players from other countries, it is nevertheless the closest that Filipino badminton enthusiasts will experience to participating in a Yonex tournament adopting international standards.
Much awaited, much anticipated. Now an institution in badminton tournaments. The Yonex-Sunrise Philippines National Open Badminton Championships is where champions continue to shine, and new ones are born.
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