I was sent a link to a really interesting story on thestar.com about something called “Blackminton” where they play Speedminton in black lights. Now, personally I find Speedminton to be an insult to the real badminton. It’s like they’ve re-packaged the whole “backyard badminton” thing in a new way. However, I found a video for Blackminton online that looks pretty cool. I’d like to see a match between Peter Gade and Lin Dan in a black lit badminton hall, THAT would be awesome. Perhaps the guys over at Badmintonsite.com can arrange something?? If anyone knows of a video of people playing real badminton in such a way let me know for sure. There was another video on YouTube about Blackminton as well that you might want to check out. Here is the video for your enjoyment! (The black light stuff is a couple minutes into the video)

Apparently Badminton World Federation Emperor, I mean Deputy President Datuk Punch Gunalan is in some more hot water over the release of a three year old letter where he was allegedly trying to convince the BAM (Badminton Association of Malaysia) President that Malaysia should bid on getting the BWF head office, and that Gunalan’s knowledge of the other bids would allow them to do so. Here is an excerpt from a story by Sportcal on the issue

“The allegations surfaced at a dramatic BWF annual general meeting held in Glasgow last weekend, when the organisation’s president, Kang Young Joong was handed a three-year-old letter apparently implicating Punch in using his position at the international federation to pass on to the Badminton Association of Malaysia confidential information relating to rival bids to attract the international federation’s headquarters.

In a surprise move, the letter, written by Punch and addressed to the BAM’s president, was read out publicly at the AGM by Joong. It included the allegedly incriminating statement: ‘Since I am able to get all the necessary information regarding the other bids, it is important that our bid is better than any of the others.’”

This definitely looks fishy to me. I have to say that I do agree with the majority of the changes that have been made to badminton in the past couple years, from the scoring system to the Super Series structure. However, the way that Gunalan has gone about it has allows wreaked of sneaky tactics. We’ll see what comes out of this, but I don’t think Gunalan is going to come out unscathed. I wonder if the suspension of the BWF Chief Operating Officer is connected to this in any way? I wonder what impact a potential inquiry will have on the Badminton World Federation’s leadership? Anyway, here is an interview with the man Gunalan himself from the World Badminton Championships in Madrid this past September.

The Indonesia Badminton Association has alleged that Lin Dan’s absence from the recent Indonesia Open was not due to injury and that there was some premeditated reason for him not playing. China’s head coach Li Yongbo has insisted that this was not the case and that the decision not to play was a strategic adjustment to the whole year plan for Lin Dan.

There are rumours that Lin Dan might be trying to play mind games with Taufik leading up to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing next summer, but I would think it is a little bit early for any of that. I think the organizers are just sour that Lin Dan didn’t show up and they lost spectator interest as a result.

Douglas College student Lindsay Thomson was recently declared female athlete of the year by the CCAA for all sports. Lindsay is a second year nursing student as well as a star badminton player. Lindsay helped B.C. to win the national team title as well as the women’s singles title. This is a pretty big deal for badminton in terms of getting some good exposure and respect among other sports. Congratulations to Lindsay.

Read the CCAA News Report

Newfoundland’s Samantha Ralph was recently interviewed by “The Beacon” which seems to be a local newspaper out in Newfoundland, after winning two bronze medals at the recent nationals in St. Alberta. If you’re interested click on Samantha’s picture to go see the article.

Will Milroy, who is the vice-president of the players’ association for Badminton Canada just emailed this message out for players who are playing in the nationals which start tomorrow.

“Dear players,

This is to inform you that there is going to be an athletes meeting scheduled for 3 pm on Friday, February 2, 2007. It will be held at the Tournament Hotel in one of the conference rooms, which will be announced next week at the beginning of Nationals.

Please be aware that there will be quite a few issues on the table: team selections(Pan Am Games and Pan Am Championships), Badminton Canada and Government funding, Senior and Junior Development as well as any other topics that may wish to be discussed.

The first part of the meeting will be athletes only and then for the second part, we will invite Jeff White and possibly Martha Deacon, if she is available, to address any outstanding issues.The point of this meeting is to update the athletes, so we will try to discuss things generally and in a timely fashion unless a particular point is needing further attention.

Both Andrew and I are available at any time during the tournament(within reason) to disucuss any topic at much greater length. If you have any questions, please talk to us. We are there as resources of information for you. What we do not know, we can get for you.

Lastly, I would like to mention that Andrew and I would like to have the opportunity to switch positions for the upcoming year as President and Vice-President. If there is anyone else that is interested in this position, then we can also discuss that at the meeting and have a formal vote to decide for the positions.

Good luck to everyone at Nationals and we will see you next week.

Sincerely,

William Milroy
Vice-President Players Association”

After much anticipation theBadminton Video Magazine North Carolina Tour is almost here. The DVD is already listed on Amazon.com and should be ready for purchase with 10-15 days. For those of you who haven’t already seen it, here is another look at the trailer.

English badminton player Toby Honey got in trouble for playing the Sports Experts Canadian Open of Badminton. Apparently Toby was supposed to play in an English Elite tournament back home, but opted to play here in Canada instead. Even though he won, he is being punished. They are withdrawing his funding for one of his upcoming international events, and will risk losing all his funding if he has anymore “errors of judgement”.

I think this is fair for Badminton England to do, they are giving their players a lot of support to keep playing (unlike here in Canada). As a result it should be a fair expectation that the players will play in events that Badminton England wants them to play in. Especially home events where they want to raise the level of play, and expose their upcoming talent to the older generation. What do you think?

There is a really interesting interview on the Badminton Players Federation website with Canada’s Andrew Dabeka and Will Milroy. Jonas brings these two Canadian National Champions onto Badminton Trash Talk TV, and drills them with questions. Andrew is the president of the Badminton Canada Players Association, and Will is the vice-president.