Badminton-Cupidon/Ah-Wan pair for World Championships |07 August 2007
The two players are to be accompanied by Seychellois
Cupidon and Ah-Wan qualified for the World Badminton Championships in Mauritius in April this year when they retained their African Championships’ mixed doubles title won for the first time in Algiers, Algeria in December 2006.
When they returned to Algeria last month for the Ninth All-Africa Games, the Seychellois pair showed its opponents that it remains the best on the continent with a 2-0 (21-14, 21-17) win against the Nigerian pair of Grace Daniel and G. Okuongahe in the final.
Other than the Ah-Wan/Cupidon pair, Africa will be represented in Kuala Lumpur by a second mixed doubles duo of Michelle Edwards and James Dorian of South Africa.
A total of 64 pairs will be participating in the mixed doubles events and they will all be vying to garner maximum points possible to better their standings in the world ranking for a place at next year’s Olympic Games in Beijing, China.
Cupidon and Ah-Wan will meet Filipinos Kennie and Kennevic Asuncion in the first round and in the event of a win they will play the winners of match number 18 between Singaporeans Yanei Jians/Hendra Wijaya and Germans Birgit Overzier/Kristof Hopp.
Speaking to Sports Nation, Seychelles Badminton Association chairman Michel Bau said that “the cream of the world’s badminton will be in Malaysia for the World Championships. If Ah-Wan and Cupidon can at least win their first round match, they will accumulate some points in their bid to qualify for the Olympics in 2008.”
Mr Bau added that the pair is to compete in at least nine competitions in order to qualify for the Olympics.
The top seed in the mixed doubles are Chinese players Zheng Bo and Gao Ling, while the Briton pair of Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson leads the world ranking.
G. G.