Minda netters gear up for Sun badminton

MANILA, Philippines - Top badminton players from the host region brace for a fierce duel when the Mindanao leg of the Sun Cellular Badminton tournament is fired off Aug. 21 at the Smash N’ Drop Badminton Center in San Pedro Extension, Davao City.

Registration for the three-day event, sanctioned by the Philippine Badminton Association, is ongoing with deadline set tomorrow, according to the organizing Forthright Events. For details, log on to suncellularjuniors.com.

Division winners of the event sponsored by Sun Cellular, Smart, MVP Sports Foundation, PBA, Smash Pilipinas, Victor exclusively distributed by Pcome Industrial Sales, Inc., Bayfront Hotel Cebu, JC Centre Mandaue, will gain berths in the national finals slated Sept. 26 and 27 at the J Centre Mandaue in Banilad, Cebu.

Smart Sports’ Christopher Quimpo said the tournament is part of the MVP Sports Foundation’s efforts to discover talents in the countryside who could be trained and developed into becoming future national pool members.

“This is part of the MVP Sports Foundation’s efforts in helping strengthen the country’s grassroots development program in badminton,” said Quimpo of the event, which is also part of the Philippine National Ranking System that is being used to gauge the players’ strength.

A crack Philippine team, composed of Jewel Albo, Ian Maui Santos, Ramon Timothy Santos, Mikaela Joy de Guzman, Mica Airah Ibong and Olivia Jean Sanvictores, will represent the country in the Asian Junior Sports Exchange 2015 slated Aug. 25-31 in Tokyo, Japan.