Thirsty badminton off tomorrow

CEBU, Philippines - Over two hundred players are expected to see action in the revival staging of the Thirsty Badminton Cup at Metro Sports Badminton Club in Lahug, this city tomorrow.

Those who have not yet signed up will have until 12 noon today to register at the venue.

Entry fee is pegged at P750 per player. This will entitle the registrant to an event t-shirt.

For those who want to join another event, they have to pay an additional P500 only.

Participants will be divided into two classes— smoothies and shakers.

The smoothies division features four levels — C, D, E and F with each level will have several events.

All levels are open for everyone interested except for level F that’s exclusive for Cebu residents.

Level C features the men’s doubles and mixed doubles while the rest of the levels will have the same events as level C plus the ladies’ doubles.

The shakers division, on the other hand, will be for players 40 years old and above.

The shakers will have two classifications—D and E with level D to have the men’s and mixed doubles and level E with men’s doubles.

“Fifty percent of the total number of participants are from outside Cebu City and other parts of the Visayas,” said Michelle Fernandez, organizer of the event in yesterday’s press conference at Mooon Café-Cebu IT Park branch.

Out-of-town entries include those from Cagayan de Oro, Tagbilaran and other areas of Bohol, Maasin, Ormoc, Iligan and Tacloban.

This tournament started in 2003, but got stopped in 2010 due to conflict with other badminton events.

Badminton used to be a fad before the running boom.

“There were too many badminton tournaments that time and we don’t want to duplicate. This time, there is no much tournament happening anymore so we are picking up and promote the sport again,” said Bunny Pages, the head of Pages Holdings of which Thirsty Juices and Shakes are part of.

A total cash prize of P50 thousand plus medals will be up for grabs.  – THE FREEMAN