As part of efforts to increase the popularity of the sport here, the Guyana Badminton Association (GBA) has taken the Shuttle Time Project to Linden, specifically introducing it to the Mackenzie High School and the Christianburg Wismar Secondary School.
A team comprising President of the GBA, Gokarn Ramdhani, Vice-president Ayanna Watson and Secretary Emelia Ramdhani accompanied national and international champions Narayan and Priyanna Ramdhani as the Association took its development initiative to Region 10.
Just recently, the GBA conducted a similar programme in Berbice, targeting students at the New Amsterdam Multilateral and Berbice High School.
While in Linden, the team presented Shuttle Time kits of racquets, shuttlecocks and nets to the two schools to ensure the game is played there.
“Guyana’s top players Narayan and Priyanna also made their personal presentation of 11 racquets to the potential players of both schools to encourage them to play badminton,” the GBA said.
The GBA expressed appreciation to Headmaster Haslyn Small, Deputy Head Auja Sealey and Physical Education Teacher Shavin Greene of the Mackenzie High School and Headmistress Shellanne Craigwell and Physical Education Teacher Selon Peters of Christianburg Wismar Secondary School for embracing the project and getting the students involved.
“The GBA would also like to thank Mr. Lindley Langhorne (Head- Physical Education Allied Arts) for arranging the two schools so that we were able to execute the Shuttle Time Projects,” the GBA concluded.
Shuttle Time is the first such programme to be hosted in Guyana, and it came to fruition following Guyana Badminton Association president Gokarn Ramdhani making representation at the BWF’s AGM in Gold Coast, Australia, in May 2017.
“It’s going to be a very good course for Guyana, especially for the teachers training the children for CSEC. It is also a basic programme to help us with the development plan for badminton in Guyana because now the teachers will be assisting us to get up the players and then we get them out into the areas and the teams and clubs we would want them to go,” Ramdhani said back then.
The Badminton Association, over the years, has been clamouring for the sport to be prominent in schools nationwide, and Ramdhani believes the hosting of the Shuttle Time project is a positive step in that direction.
“Because we’ve tried implementing badminton in a lot of schools for the past 7-8 years; we donated racquets, shuttlecocks and nets…we did programmes for them but nobody never followed up. So now that we get the P.E teachers, I hope this is a better way to get it more developed,” Ramdhani revealed at the launch in 2017.
Guyana became the 106th country where the Shuttle Time Programme was introduced.
