National badminton team aim to repeat Pan-Am bronze feat

“Well the expectation is to maintain that third place or higher. They are poised to do so even though we are up against some big guns this year because this year is the beginning of the Olympic qualification.

“So all the persons who are down on their points, will be coming down to gain as much points as they can possibly gain.

“But my players are not intimated or deterred by them being there. We have put in the training and will do the best we can do and hopefully hold on to third place,” Lewis told Old Harbour News.
Top junior female player Tahlia Richardson is the only new face named in the six-member squad which will depart on February 12 for South America nation. 

The other members named are Katherine Wynter, Gareth Henry, Samuel Ricketts, Dennis Coke and Anthony McNee.

Henry, the country’s top seeded player for several years now and Ricketts teamed up to win bronze in the men’s doubles at last year’s tournament in Trinidad.

The pair is again expected to do well this year and at least match last year’s feat.

While each player has been listed to compete in the singles category, Coke and McNee will form the other men’s doubles partnership. Wynter, the island’s top senior female player will join forces with Richardson in the women’s doubles, as well as Ricketts in mixed doubles play.

Richardson, 17, is a beneficiary of the Jamaica/China Technical Cooperation Project on Sport Coaching, and has improved remarkably to force the hands of the selectors to hand her a first senior call-up.

It is the strongest squad that could be assembled at this moment says Antonio Bell, general secretary, Jamaica Badminton Association.

“The competition is very stiff,” Bell said, pointing to the strong proliferation of Asian players representing the USA and Canada – the two most dominant countries in the Americas region.
“I expect them to medal,” he added. “If they don’t medal I won’t be disappointment, but based on past performance and current form of the players… It’s well within them to medal.”