Dubai: Team Victor beat Shuttle Shooters 3-2 in the Group A final of the inaugural Shuttle Time Dubai Badminton Club Championships at Dubai Sports World on Friday.
It followed Arab Badminton Club’s 3-2 win over Badeemonz in Group B of the series last Friday. Over 120 players from 12 teams battled it out over five weeks for the titles, competing across men’s singles, doubles, boy’s/women’s doubles and masters doubles categories.
“It’s great for our team to have won the first Club Championship, we loved being part of it,” said Team Victor captain Alex Tharakan. “It’s been very motivating and challenging to be part of this event, there’s a lot of participants, and it’s good to see the diverse communities come together.”
Hessa Al Kous, sports events planning manager from Dubai Sports Council presented the trophies and said: “We are very pleased with the level of participation and the interest from the public.
“In addition to promoting participation, we are focusing on all aspects of the development of the sport, including the training of teachers, coaches and technical officials, as well as hosting school championships and providing free to play courts at Dubai Sports World,” she said.
Jaffer Ebrahim, Dubai badminton development manager and tournament director said: “We are hoping this will be an annual event and all the clubs are looking forward to participating in this event each summer.
“Our next big project will be Shuttle Time Dubai National Training Centres, we will be targeting 160 Emirati players in four different centres and this will run for three months,” he added.
Shuttle Time Dubai is a grassroots initiative to popularise the sport after Dubai Sports Council and the Badminton World Federation signed a four-year agreement last year to bring the annual season-ending World Superseries Finals to the emirate until 2017.
This year will be the second staging of the event, where the world’s top eight will battle it out for 2016 Olympic Games qualification points and a share of the $1 million (Dh3.67 million) prize pool from December 9 to 13 at the Hamdan Sports Complex.
Tickets are available at www.ticketmaster.ae and for more information visit the Dubai World Superseries Finals Facebook page.
