New Venture in California

Badminton is one of 14 sports taking part in a completely new venture called 'World Games'. These sports are almost all sports which do not take part in the Olympic programme - the notable exception being boxing. The whole World Games concept and organ­isation belongs to the International Federations involved and the event is being promoted in California along American promotional lines.

There will be little of the Olympic pomp and ceremony at World Games and the IBF are confident that they can run the Badminton events under the Prize Money Regulations.

Accommodation for the com­petitors in all sports will be provided on the excellent campus of the University of Santa Clara and the city of Santa Clara is providing all the venues free of charge. Badminton will be played in the Civic Auditorium in the neighbouring city of San Jose, a splendid three-court hall with seats for 2,700 spectators and excellent facilities. The original intention was to play a small invitation event on one court using only the world's best players and to concentrate on presenting the event as professionally as possible. It became clear very quickly - after the last issue of World Badminton - that there was much greater interest than had been at first thought.

All the invited players accepted the invitations and many member associations were prepared to send additional players at their own expense. It was decided to try to accept all these new entries and to run a qualifying event on Saturday July 25 with only the 

qualifiers going on to the main tournament on one court on the next three days. As the entries poured in and the quality got higher and higher, the Open Badminton Working Group who are responsible for the event, decided that the whole event would be completely out of balance and that the Tournament should be played in its normal format over 4 days on 3 courts. The originally invited players would be joined by all the others - and perhaps even by some players from WBF members after Unification. The draw will be made in Tokyo on May 29 from the following entries:­

This entry is just about as comprehensive as it can be and should provide a marvellous event for all Badminton enthusiasts on the West Coast of the United States. The organisation of the event in California will be in the capable hands of Jerry Eidielbeyer and Cletus Eli, President and Secretary of the USBA. Television coverage is expected and we hope this will provide a very great boost to the game in the United States.

Anyone interested should contact:-

555 Los Padres Boulevard, Santa Clara, California 95050 (Tel. 408/249) or the IBF.

MEN'S SINGLES

Rudy Hartono (Indonesia); Liem Swie King (Indonesia); Morten Frost Hansen (Denmark); Prakash Padukone (India); Ray Stevens (England); Misbun Sidek (Malaysia); Flemming Delfs (Denmark); Kevin Jolly (England); Luis Pongoh (Indonesia); Stefan Karlsson (Sweden); Steve Baddeley (England); Ong Beng Teong (Malaysia); Garry Higgins (USA); Chris Kinard (USA); Federico Valdez (Peru); Alfredo Salazar (Peru); German Valdez (Peru);  Hiroyuki Hasegawa (Japan); Kinji Zeniya (Japan); Masao Tsuchida (Japan); Hadiyanto (Indonesia); Pat Tryon (Canada); Paul Johnson (Canada); Rob Ridder (Netherlands); Syed Modi (India) and Samson Egbeyerni (Nigeria)

LADIES' SINGLES

Atsuko Tokuda (Japan); Verawaty Wiharjo (Indonesia); Gillian Gilks (England); Wendy Carter (Canada); Lene Koppen (Denmark); Lie Ing Ivana (Indonesia); Sun Ai Hwang (Korea); Jane Webster (England); Tjan So Gwan (Indonesia); Taty Sumirah (Indonesia); Liu Shiew-Yeng (Chinese-Taipei); Liselotte Blumer (Switzerland); Yun Ja Kim (Korea); San Heo Yoo (Korea); Haing Suk Kang (Korea); Katherine Teh (Malaysia); Leong Choi Lean (Malaysia); Cheryl Carton (USA); Utami Kinard (USA); Jane Youngberg (Canada); Clare Backhouse (Canada); Sandra Skillings (Canada); Marjan Ridder (Netherlands) and Grace Edwards (Nigeria)

MEN'S DOUBLES

Tjun Tjun & Wahjudi (Indonesia); Stevens & Tredgett (England); Delfs & Skovgaard (Denmark); Kihlstrorn & Karlsson (Sweden); Chandra & Christian (Indonesia); R Sidek & J Sidek (Malaysia); Jolly & Baddeley (England); Gilliland & Travers (Scotland); Kartono & Heryanto (Indonesia); Walker & Fogarty (USA); Britton & Higgins (USA); Valdez & Valdez (Peru); Tsuchida & Iino (Japan); M Sidek & Ong (Malaysia); Tryon & Johnson (Canada) and Egbeyerni & Badiru (Nigeria)

LADIES' DOUBLES

Perry & Webster (England); Imelda & Verawaty (Indonesia); Yonekura & Tokuda (Japan); Kondo & Takada (Japan); Hwang & Kang (Korea); Kim & Yoo (Korea); Teh & Leong (Malaysia); Brady & Kelly (USA); Widiatusty & Damayanti (Indonesia); Youngberg & Backhouse (Canada); Carter & Skillings (Canada); Blumer & Chapman (Switzerland/England) and Edwards & Edoga (Nigeria)

MIXED DOUBLES

Christian & Imelda (Indonesia); Tredgett & Perry (England); Skovgaard & Koppen (Denmark); Gilliland & Chapman (Scotland); Walker & Kelly (USA); Brady & Brady (USA); Ridder & Ridder (Netherlands); Johnson & Backhouse (Canada); Kihlstrorn & Gilks (Sweden/England) and Badiru & Edoga (Nigeria)

  --  Craig Reedie - World Badminton, June 1981