After leading India to an impressive haul of medals in the recent Para-Badminton World Championships in Basel, Switzerland last month, India's para-badminton coach Gaurav Khanna wants to take his career as a technical official to a higher level – thanks to Badminton Asia.
Khanna is one of the eight candidates who are currently undergoing the Badminton Asia Umpires Appraisal and Mentoring Course 2019 in Taipei, Chinese Taipei with the hope of making the grade. The eight will be tested if they are a good material to be upgraded to BWF Accredited from Badminton Asia Certificated.
All eight were picked for this course in Taipei after coming through an appraisal when they attended the Fuzhou China Open last year.
India and China have two candidates each for the appraisal and mentoring course in Taipei which began on August 31, 2019, and ends on September 9, 2019. It is held in conjunction with the Yonex Chinese Taipei Open which is held at the same venue – Arena, Taipei – from Sept 3-8.
Apart from Khanna, the other candidate from India is Mr. C.R. Rajeev. China has Ms. Su Nan and Ms. Jiang Shiying. The rest are Mr. Yogentaran Murugiah (Malaysia), Mr. Md Shamim Hasan Saikat (Bangladesh), Mr. Chen Ching-Ku (Chinese Taipei) and Ms. Judith Brosula (Philippines).
"Badminton Asia has been actively and consistently working on improving the level of TOs (Technical Officials) in Asia and they have been successful in their agenda too in producing a number of BWF level TOs from Asia. This course is one of them in the series. I am happy to be part of it. It is a perfect opportunity for us to get acquainted and updated in the field of umpiring," says Khanna.
The course is conducted by Ms. Yau Lin Na of Malaysia and Ms. Zheng Sanliang from China.
