CNMI welcomes 200 athletes for two int’l badminton tourneys

Two more international badminton tournaments are bringing athletes from all over the world to the shores of Saipan—the Crowne Plaza Northern Marianas Open 2024 that starts today, July 2, until July 7—and the Dove Saipan International 2024 from July 9-13.

The Badminton World Federation Grade 3 International Challenge tournament will feature athletes from 16 different countries at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium and is open to the public.

In a press conference yesterday at the Crowne Plaza Resort Saipan’s Azucena Hall, local media met some of the tournament’s top competitors—Edward Lau, Viren Nettashinghe, Hye Jeong Kim, and Riko Gunji—as well the two tournaments’ major sponsors—Max Kretzers, D&Q resident manager and Martin Jambor, Crowne Plaza Resort Saipan Resort manager; organizers from the Northern Marianas Badminton Association including president Merlie Tolentino and Nate Guerrero; Badminton Oceania CEO Julie Carrel; and Northern Marianas Sports Association president Jerry Tan.

For Edward Lau of New Zealand, as the recent Oceania champion, he said, “I’m very excited to be here. I’ve always just played with players in the Oceania region, so I’m looking forward to experiencing playing against different players not from the Oceania region.”

His advice to the youth who aspire to achieve what he had in badminton, is to stay disciplined and be consistent in their training.

The tourney’s top ranked player at world’s No. 74, Viren Nettashinghe from Sri Lanka, who qualified for his first Olympics—the 2024 Paris Olympics, said that the competition here will be challenging but that he is also excited and looking forward to it.

Former world No. 3 Kim of South Korea and 2019 World Junior Championship winner Gunji of Japan, who has won two of her last three tournaments this year, also shared their excitement for the tourneys.

Guerrero, who is a CNMI athlete/coach, said that the international tourneys on island are beneficial to the youth and up-and-coming badminton athletes because they get to be exposed to different skill levels and experience a different level of play than what they are used to on just the local scale. “It’s a really great experience and opportunity,” he said.

Jambor welcomed the athletes to the island and said that Crowne Plaza is always proud to sponsor the international tournaments, just as they did last year. “I want to wish the best of luck to the participants,” he added.

For Kretzers, he also welcomed the athletes to Saipan and hopes that everyone enjoys the tournament.

Carrel, who was also here last year for the two Olympic badminton qualifiers the TakeCare Saipan International 2023 and the Crowne Plaza Resort Saipan Northern Marianas Open 2023, said that it’s great to be back following the success of those tournaments.

“What we find really exciting is the amount of local interest… Every time we host a tournament, we get more and more people coming to the tournament and watch. We’re also seeing significant growth in badminton here in the NMI and that really has got to do with the interscholastic program,” she said.

She also mentioned that NMBA won the BWF Member Association Participation Award last April for its Interscholastic Badminton League program that was first introduced in the islands in 2021, in partnership with the CNMI Public School System and TakeCare Insurance Company, Inc. NMBA was the first member of Badminton Oceania to win the award and is also the first national sports federation in the NMI to win an award from a world governing body of sports.

For Tan, he thanked Carrel for the support of Oceania Badminton and congratulated Tolentino for their award.

He then welcomed the 200 badminton players that’s playing in the two tournaments. “If they are a repeater, welcome back—if this is their first time, we hope you all enjoy it and keep coming back. But I just want to wish them the best of luck in the next two weeks,” he said. He then thanked the tournaments’ sponsors and said, “Without the two title sponsors, it’ll be a lot more difficult to organize.”

Tolentino, for her part, also thanked the sponsors for their support and said that the NMBA is always honored and grateful for the opportunity to host an international badminton tourney. “We’re really thankful to the players for considering our country for your international ranking tournament,” she said. “We always treat this as an important moment for the community, not just for our badminton players on the island because we’re happy to have visitors from different countries, and hopefully, they also get to enjoy our island.”