A record contingent of Para-badminton athletes has done Australia proud during their final opportunity to amass crucial world ranking points for the Race to Paris.
The 14-strong squad came away with four Top 8 finishes from the NSDF Royal Beach Cliff BWF Para Badminton World Championships.
Badminton Australia CEO, Tjitte Weistra said it was an incredible event to be a part of.
“To witness the skills of the athletes across so many different categories and to see how the Para-athletes perform at the highest level on the world stage, was simply phenomenal,” Weistra said,
“With the largest ever team from Australia attending (14 athletes), I was extremely proud to see our athletes competing against the best in the world.
“To come away with four Top 8 finishes shows how our Para-program has grown over the past few years.
“We couldn’t be more grateful for the support that we are receiving from Paralympics Australia and the Australian Institute of Sport which has been instrumental in providing support to our athletes and coaches.”
Paralympics Australia representative Stephen Hadlow also attended, working with a remote Victoria Institute of Sport analyst to gather data, and observations on performance as part of the Paris Performance Analysis Hub.
In the Men’s Singles SL3, Kenneth Adlawan went out in the Round of 16 to England’s Daniel Bethell, 1-21, 5-21.
Mischa Ginns advanced to the Quarterfinals of the Women’s Singles WH2, where she was defeate. Ginns also made the Quarterfinals of the Women’s Doubles WH1-WH2 alongside Yuka Chokyu of Canada. The duo were defeated by the host nation 10-21, 8-21.
Celine Vinot advanced to the Women’s Singles Quarterfinals, while Arika Shetty bowed out in the Round of 16 in the Women’s SL4.
Tokyo 2020 Paralympian Caitlin Dransfield and Amonrat Jamporn also made the Quarterfinals but were defeated by India’s Manasi Joshi and Thulasimathi Murugesan 5-21,5-21.
Weistra said the world championships were the last event in the Road to Paris qualifying period.
“Now we wait to see the final world rankings being released by the BWF,” he said.
“We are very confident that the excellent results obtained at the World Championships put us in a very strong position to see athletes qualify for Paris 2024.”
The Race to Paris Paralympic Ranking List will be published on 2 April.
The highest ranked pairs in the men’s, women’s and mixed doubles rankings will earn qualification slots along with the best players from the singles ranking list.
By Natalie McGarry, Paralympics Australia
Posted: 28 February 2024
