Dammam Badminton Open Challenge set to roll

DAMMAM: The Saudi Badminton Committee will organize its mega badminton tournament in Dammam Feb 26 and 27 in cooperation with Evenlode Badminton Club in Dammam.
Considered one of the region’s prestigious events dubbbed Dammam Badminton Open Challenge it will take place at Al Ittifaq Club. The tournament cum logo launch for this event took place at Classic Hotel attended by the main representatives of Saudi Badminton Committee, Evenlode Badminton Club and chief guests.
Saudi Badminton Committee General Secretary Yousef Al Thobaiti said the tournament is aimed at promoting badminton and build camaraderie among members of the badminton community in this region. This will also help the committee to scout the young talents and to grow them as future international players. He also said Shuttle Time program in Kingdom will be simultaneously launched during this event. Shuttle Time is a World Badminton Federation (BWF) school program with a strategic vision to bring badminton to every child in the world.
This program will be conducted by the main executives of Badminton Asia Confederation (BAC) headed by Thana Arikrishnan, the former head coach of New zealand and present development manager of BAC along with BWF Dubai badminton development manager Jaffer Ebrahim from Bahrain. To grace the occasion is Beijing Olympics champion Markis Kido of Indonesia.
Evenlode Badminton Club President Tony Mathew said it’s a great initiative by the Saudi Badminton Committee to conduct major tournaments which will promote the sports of badminton across the region. The inauguration of Shuttle Time program in Saudi Arabia will surely help to increase awareness and popularize badminton in football country Saudi Arabia. Evenlode Badminton Club (EBC) will always support to promote badminton in Saudi Arabia, Mathew added.
Seeing action in this tournament are junior Saudi players from Dammam , Riyadh and Makkah region who are training under qualified coaches of each region and directed by the official SBC coach Ammar Awad. The top Saudi players Zuhari Almoussa and Alayan Al Harbi, representative of SBC of Makkah province, will take part in the event.
Also, hundreds of players of different nationalities from all over the regions of Jeddah, Riyadh, Dammam, Jubail , Abha are expected to pit skills against each other during the two days event.
The two day events will be having categories of Premier & Championship Men’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, Veteran (Above 45yrs), Juniors Singles & Doubles(u-17), Sub-junior Singles and Doubles(U-14). The winners and runners up will be awarded with attractive trophies and special gifts.
The launching of the logo for the event was done by chief guest and mentor of Evenlode Badminton Club, Jamal Saad Aldoulab (CEO- Khalid General Contracting), Isa Burshaid (Saudi Airlines), Abdurehman Al Mughawi and Adil Mukhemer (representative of Saudi Badminton Committee) , EBC executives Tony Mathew (president), Fahad Khalid (vice -president), Abdul Majeed (general- secretary), Mansur Vaisiar (treasurer), Nawab Khan (joint treasurer) and Thaju Ayyaril (executive member).
For more information, players may contact Abdul Majeed on 0506828557/0504647288 and E-mail:evenlodeb@gmail.com