Guyanese Ramdhani appointed to Badminton Pan Am Confederation

President of the Guyana Badminton Association and national coach, Gokarn Ramdhani, has been appointed Deputy Chair for Communication and Marketing at the Badminton Pan American Confederation.

Ramdhani was appointed to the post at the Confederation’s Annual General Meeting in Nanning, China, recently. He will serve in the post for the period 2019-2023.

“I am very pleased to get this position to help with the development of International Badminton and Guyana, and also happy to know that my work and contribution to Badminton is being recognised by the highest international bodies,” Ramdhani related.

This new responsibility will add to Ramdhani’s already long list of commitments. He is also president of the Yonex Badminton Club, a Council Member of the Guyana Olympic Association, Vice-president of the Caribbean Regional Badminton Confederation and Second Vice-president of Confederation Central American and Caribbean Badminton.

About the Pan Am Confederation

The Pan American Badminton Confederation (BPAC) is the governing body of badminton in the Americas and is recognised as such by the World Badminton Federation. It was founded in 1976 and is currently composed of 37 member associations.

BPAC was founded in the city of Mexico in 1976 and nominated Victor Jaramillo (Mexico) as President until an official election was scheduled to take place at the first Pan Am Championships the following year.

The first Badminton Pan Am Championships was held in Moncton, New Brunswick-Canada, in April 1977.

Mr. Victor Jaramillo was confirmed as President and stayed in this charge until 1981.

During these five years, Pan American Championships were held in Canada, Peru, Mexico, and USA. As far as Pan Am Junior Championships, they were held in Mexico, Canada, USA and Peru.

From 1981 to 1987, there was no contest until November 1987 when the V Pan Am Championships was held in Lima, Peru.

Outstanding efforts made by Helen Baxter (CAN) trying to reactivate the Pan American Badminton Confederation since 1982 and also help on the part of the Badminton Peru National Commission President, Mr. José Andrés Bellido, Badminton Pan Am, once again, became an active member of the International Badminton Federation in 1987.

During the V Badminton Pan Am Championships, held in Lima-Peru, November 1987, there was a Congress to re-establish Pan Am Badminton Confederation.

At the Thomas and Uber Cup preliminaries in Pan Am Continent in February 1988, Pierre Blouin was elected President. Badminton was included at Olympic Games programme in Barcelona 1992 and Para-Badminton, in Tokyo 2020.