GBA to host AirBadminton tournament in Essequibo on March 6

Following the successful staging of a Shuttle Time workshop for school teachers in Essequibo, the Guyana Badminton Association (GBA) will host a historic AirBadminton tournament in the county on March 6.

The one-day tournament will be held at the Motocross Ground in Mainstay, with action getting underway at 10:00h. The GBA said it will be a day of “fun and competition on the sand” with trophies and prizes to be won.

A spin-off from the Shuttle Time programme

The tournament is a spin-off from the Shuttle Time programme held in 2024 when executives of the GBA and coaches visited the Essequibo Coast to introduce and demonstrate Badminton to three secondary schools in Region Two.

Stops were made at the Aurora Secondary, Abram Zuil Secondary and Anna Regina Multilateral where donations of equipment through the Shuttle Time Programme was made to help promote and develop Badminton in those schools, and by extension the county.

According to Guyana’s Shuttle Time National Coordinator Emilia Ramdhani, 20 teachers were subsequently trained in 2025 to teach the basics of the sport to their students.

Since then students have been playing the game, hence the decision to have a tournament next month.

This tournament, according to Ramdhani, forms part of an arrangement the Guyana Badminton Association has with Badminton Pan Am to create an avenue for talents in the community to be exposed.

A similar engagement was undertaken in St. Cuthbert’s Mission in 2025.

“This year we’re focusing mostly on the students from the schools,” Ramdhani, who is also president of the GBA, related to News Room Sport.

“So far we have Kabakaburi Secondary, Aurora Secondary, Charity Secondary and Abram Zuil Secondary participating.”

The tournament format would be ‘triples’ with schools mandated to have at least one female in their three-member teams.

Ramdhani noted that the long-term aim of having these tournaments is to not just expand the sport beyond Georgetown, but also one day being able to have Guyana represented at Badminton Pan Am Regional Air Badminton tournament.

The Shuttle Time Programme was introduced to some schools in Berbice in 2019 and a follow-up was done in 2023 which produced athletes who competed in the GBA tournaments.

The Badminton Association also took the Shuttle Time programme to Linden in 2021, and the University of Guyana and St. Rose’s High the same year.

The Shuttle Time programme took root in Guyana in 2017 under the guidance and leadership of the Gokarn Ramdhani, who was president of the Association at the time.

About the Shuttle Time programme

In 2012, BWF, the world’s governing body for the racquet sport, launched Shuttle Time globally.

“A schools’ badminton programme supporting the principle that children should lead a healthy and active life, both in and out of school, was conceived. BWF’s goal is to make badminton one of the world’s most popular and accessible school sports,” the GBA added.

“Shuttle Time offers school teachers access to resources, training and equipment, which support the teaching of enjoyable, safe and inclusive badminton activities to children aged 5-15 years old. Shuttle Time lessons are designed to provide children with a positive image of badminton through many opportunities to have fun, engage with others and experience success.”

Shuttle Time is currently being implemented in more than 140 countries in partnership with BWF’s Continental Confederations and Member Associations.