Badminton
My visit on 1st and 2nd March 2007 to inspect the Sport Hall, some hotels and the Press Conference for the World Deaf Badminton Championships in Mülheim/Ruhr.
The Sport Hall where the Badminton Championships will be held is absolutely first class with full facility available, close to the City centre and railway station. I also checked some hotels and found them very nice and clean.
The Sport Hall will have 6 badminton courts with well over 1300 seats for the players and spectators during the World Championships. It also has proper meeting rooms where we will be having our technical meeting before and after the tournament.
The Yonex German Open the press conference for the World Deaf Badminton Championships that was being held on the 2nd at the Rhein Ruhr Sporthallen in Mülheim, at the venue of the upcoming world championships of the deaf.
After having opened the conference Sabine Grajewski, DGS Sports Director and head of the OC expressed our special thanks to Yoshihiro Yano, Managing Director at Yonex and Rachmat Hidajat, Yonex Salesmanager, who represent our main sponsor Yonex at this conference. In the course of the meeting the official clothing equipment for the German team were presented, the same outfit like the hearing German national team.
Moreover Sabine Grajewski mentioned our sponsors MEG (Mülheimer Entsorgungsbetriebe) and RWW (Rheinisch Westfälische Wasserwerke).
She introduced Mr. Wind of the Mülheimer Sportservice, who has already supported the DGS in the preparation and organisation of the championships as well as Mr Karl-Heinz Kerst, President of the DBV (German Badminton Federation), who as well granted further promotion.
All in all this conference had been an important opportunity to represent the deaf sports in general not only the deaf badminton sports.
One highlight was the drawing for the official badminton poster. Students of the design class of college for deaf and hearing impaired had delivered 8 layouts; three of them were nominated for a final drawing. The posters were represented by Anna Wawoczny, Bianca Kostrzewa and Imken Glandien. Josef Scheitle and Sabine Grajewski handed over a check of 200 Euro to the lucky winner- Anna Wawoczny for the students company of the RWB Collage.
I would like to thank the German Deaf Sports Federation for their excellent co-operation during my official visit.
Martin Bogard
ICSD Technical Director - Badminton
2nd World Deaf Badminton Championships Update
As of today I have received the Final entries from 21 different countries for participation in the world deaf badminton championships in September in Germany. I understand a few countries are still trying to sort out with important documents with their governments. I expect around 25 countries will show up but I will give you another update in the next issue with more details. At the moment 13 countries want to take part in the Team event and in the individual events, 58 men and 46 women. I expect this will be increased in due course.
I am pleased to inform you all that ICSD have put the official Badminton players' ranking lists. If you want to see them, please go to www.deaflympics.com and go to Badminton section under Sports link.
If you have any questions relateing to the World Championships and ranking lists, please do email me (badmintontd@ciss.org) and I will be happy to reply.
Yours in Sports,
Martin Bogard
ICSD Technical Director - Badminton